Stuck at fifteen
by EnchantingMrFitz
Summary: Aria and Ezra have been together for years. Her parents never approved. Then one night, after a fight with Ezra, Aria gets in a car accident. Now she's in the hospital, suffering from memory loss. What happens when her parents get to the hospital first?
1. The accident

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pretty Little Liars

**Author's note:** Alright, this is the second fanfic I'm putting on here. I wasn't planning on writing another one until my first one was finished, but the idea just came to me and I just went with it.  
>As you have read, this story is about Aria getting memory loss. I am not a doctor, so I do apologize in advance if some things aren't 100% medically accurate.<br>But anyways, I hope you enjoy reading this first chapter (and hopefully many more).

**Information about the story**: Aria is 22 and has just finished college. She has been together with Ezra since she met him in the bar that day. They have been living together in Ezra's apartment ever since Aria graduated high school. The whole -A problem has been resolved and doesn't get mentioned anymore. Ella and Byron never learnt to accept Aria and Ezra's relationship, so because of that Aria doesn't see them anymore. Mike got very sick when Aria was 18 and he died. (RIP Mike!)

Happy reading!

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><p>It was a stormy night, inside their apartment Ezra and Aria were having a discussion about their future. Aria, who had just finished college, had gotten a job offer at a publishing house. The only problem was that the job was in Manhattan, so they would have to move.<p>

"Look Ezra…this job offer is a huge deal for me. If I take this job, I can literally do anything I want after that", Aria explained. Ezra took in a deep breath and rubbed his temple as he exhaled, "So, I'm just supposed to give up my job then?". Aria sighed, "Come on Ezra, it's not like you can't teach anywhere else". "It's not like you can't get a job somewhere else either, like around here", Ezra replied aggravated. "No Ezra, I can't. This job will launch my career in ways other jobs couldn't", Aria replied. "So what you're basically saying, is that it doesn't matter what I think, we're just going to do what YOU want", Ezra said getting seemingly more upset. "Of course you have a say in this, otherwise I wouldn't be asking you", Aria said. "But you're not…asking me, you're telling me. You've already decided you're taking this job. You decided that the second you applied for this job", Ezra said with a hint of sadness in his voice. "Ezra, I really want this. It's a huge opportunity", Aria tried explaining to him again. "So you keep saying, but….I'm not moving, that's final", Ezra staid sternly. "Fine, be that way. If you don't want to move, that's your decision, but I am", Aria said seemingly upset. "Oh, come on. Don't be so childish", Ezra snapping at her. "I'm childish? No Ezra, YOU'RE the one who's being childish.", Aria said madly. Aria grabbed her purse and she took her car keys of the kitchen counter and said, "I… I need to get out of here". And she headed for the door. "Aria, wait! Don't go!", Ezra pleaded. But it was too late, Aria had already walked out the door.

Aria walked outside of their apartment building and headed for her car in a hurry, because it was storming really bad outside. She got in her car and just sat there for a minute, not knowing where to go. She didn't really have a place to go. Ezra was all she had left. Hanna was in New York working in fashion, Emily had become a professional swimmer and Spencer was working at a big law firm in San Francisco. And then there were her parents…they still lived in Rosewood, but she hadn't talked to them in years. They never accepted their relationship and had tried about almost everything to try and break them up. It broke her heart when she told her parents she wanted nothing do to with them ever again, but as much as she loved her parents, she loved Ezra more. Ezra, whom she just had a fight with. Ezra, whom she would do anything for. And who would do anything for her, or so she thought.

She clenched her right hand into a fist and hit the steering wheel in front of her, yelling "Dammit!". She started to sob. She felt so alone right now, no one to talk to, no one to comfort her. She took her cell phone out of her purse and scrolled down her contact list. But soon she was at the bottom and she had no idea who to call. It had been so long since she had heard from anybody, they had all been so busy. She wiped the tears out of her face and started the car. She drove away from the apartment, destination unknown. After driving for about fifteen minutes, the storm started getting worse. The rain was falling from the sky so heavy, she couldn't even see what was right in front of her, even with her windshield wipers at full speed. She decided to slow down her speed, but it was already too late. Aria lost control of the car and it slid further down the wet road, until she crashed at high speed against a tree.

A couple of minutes after the crash, Aria regained consciousness. Her head was hurting so bad, it was the worst pain she had ever felt in her life. She kept dozing off and waking up startled, her breath was ragged and she was shaking. She reached for her purse with a trembling hand, and felt for her phone as her vision was blurry. When she found it, she felt the buttons and pressed 9-1-1 and then the green phone button. She wanted to bring the phone to her ear, but her arm felt so heavy she couldn't move it. She heard someone say "911. What's your emergency?", but it seemed so far away in the distance. Aria tried to speak, but all she could mutter was a soft "help", before losing consciousness again, and dropping the phone on the floor.

Not too long after, an ambulance arrived and took her to the hospital. The hospital called Aria's parents, who risked the stormy weather and drove to the hospital to see their daughter. When they got there, they talked to a nurse at the nurse's desk to ask where Aria was. The nurse told them that they should go sit in the waiting area and that a doctor would be with them soon. About half an hour later, that seemed like forever, the doctor came over to them and said, "Are you Aria's parents?". Ella looked up at the doctor from her chair and got out of it saying, "Yes, we are. Where is she? Is she okay? What happened?". Byron got out of his chair as well and put his arm around his wife, she clearly needed to be comforted. The doctor spoke again, "Your daughter was in a car accident this evening. She is stable for now. We are currently running some tests to see if there is any internal damage. She took quite a blow to the head, so we're also checking if there's any swelling or bleeding in her brain. Don't worry, it's just standard procedure in these cases. After the tests are done, she'll be taken to her room and then you can go see her". Then the doctor walked away to continue his work.

Ella started sobbing and Byron held her in his arms, saying "It's going to be okay. You heard the doctor". "I don't think I can go through something like this again. I can't lose another child, Byron. She's all we have left", Ella said between sobs. Byron got upset and said, "But we don't really have her, now do we? All because of that…pervert. And here our daughter is lying in the hospital, and he's not even here". Ella stopped sobbing and looked up like a light had turned on inside her head. She said seeming worried, "What if he was in the car too?". "We should be so lucky", Byron replied. Shocked by her husband's answer she walked over to the nurse she spoke earlier and asked, "Excuse me? Was there anyone else in the car with my daughter?". The nurse replied, "No. Your daughter was the only one in the car. Why do you ask?". "Oh, it's nothing. It's just that her…partner… isn't here yet, so I thought he might have been in the accident too", Ella explained to the nurse. The nurse looked up something on the computer and said, "I just checked and you and your husband are the only two people on the list we need to contact in case of an emergency. If you'd like, you can give me your daughter's partners number and I'll contact them for you, if you feel you're not up to it yourself?". Byron, who had been listening in on the conversation from a distance, walked towards them and said, "No, that won't be necessary. Thank you". Byron grabbed Ella by the arm and gently pulled her back with him to the waiting area. "Byron! What are you doing? Our daughter is in the hospital, we need to inform Ezra about this", Ella said. "No…No, we don't. Or do you not remember that he's the reason why we haven't seen or talked to our daughter in years?", Byron asked her with bitterness in his voice. Ella looked down at the floor, sighed and shook her head, before saying, "Fine".

After some more had passed, the nurse walked up to them and said, "She's in her room now. The doctor's waiting for you there. I'll take you there now, just follow me". When they arrived at the room, they saw the doctor standing at the end of her bed, her chart in his hands. The doctor saw them come in and said, "Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery", nodding a hello. Ella and Byron walked in, both gasping at the sight of their daughter. After all, they hadn't seen her in years, she looked so grown-up. They were also shocked to see her in a hospital bed like that, with a foam neck collar and with bruises. Aria was lying in the hospital bed, seemingly asleep. The doctor saw the worried looks on their face and said, "She's still pretty out of it, so she's mostly asleep, but she wakes up from time to time. We did some tests and there's some swelling in her brain, but no bleeding, so that's good. No other internal bleedings either. No fractures. It appears your daughter is going to be fine, she just needs a lot of rest". "Fine? You just said she has swelling in her brain!", Ella said panicking. "No need to worry about that. It's very common after what your daughter's been through. The swelling is just temporarily and it will be completely gone in a few days", the doctor explained. Ella seemed to calm down and was about to say something, when all of a sudden she heard her daughters' voice.

Aria opened her eyes and heard beeps and she heard someone talk. Her vision stopped being blurry and she saw her parents at the end of her bed. She had no idea what had happened to her or why she was even here. Finally she spoke, "Mom…Dad…What happened?". Ella rushed to the side of Aria's hospital bed and asked, "Honey, how are you feeling?". Aria cringed a little, everything sounded so loud. Aria replied, "It's so loud in here..my head hurts…what happened?". Ella got a worried look on her face again, she spoke softer now when she said, "You don't remember sweetie? You got into a car accident. You're in the hospital now, but you're going to be okay." Aria looked confused, she couldn't remember a car accident at all, or getting in a car for that matter. "Is everybody else okay?", Aria asked. Ella was confused now too, and said, "What do you mean by everybody else sweetie? You were the only one in the car". "But what about the driver then?", Aria asked. "You were driving the car. You don't remember that?", Ella asked getting more worried. Aria was really confused now, how could she be driving the car, "But…I'm not old enough.. to drive a car", Aria replied.

Ella turned to the doctor in the room and asked, "What is going on here, why doesn't she remember? And why does she think she's not old enough to drive a car?". The doctor replied, "It's quite normal for her not to remember the car accident. Being in a car accident is a very traumatic experience and most people just block out the memory of it all together. But it is strange that she doesn't think she's old enough to drive a car". The doctor walked up to Aria and asked her, "Aria, how old are you?". Aria looked up at the doctor and said, "I'm fifteen. Why?". "What's the last thing you remember?", the doctor asked her. Aria was getting a bit annoyed, why wouldn't they tell her what was going on? "The last thing I remember is being in Spencer's barn, with my friends. And Ali tried to hypnotize us", Aria told the doctor. Ella gasped and put her hand over her mouth in disbelief. The doctor looked at Ella now and asked, "Do you know when this specific memory happened?". Ella looked up at the ceiling with tears starting to form in her eyes, then she looked back at the doctor and said, "The summer when she was fifteen. How is this possible?". The doctor replied, "Well, there are two options. Either the swelling in her brain is causing this, and she will regain her memory when the swelling is gone. Or she is suffering from partial memory loss due to the traumatic brain injury, and there's a possibility she might never remember anything that's happened during those years".

Aria was really getting annoyed by the fact that they were talking about her like she wasn't even in the room. "Come on guys! What is going on?", she yelled out annoyed. The doctor turned to Aria and said, "Well, it appears you have partial memory loss. Your memory might return in a few days, a few months or maybe never". Aria was shocked, exactly how many years was she missing? How old was she? The doctor saw the shocked expression on Aria's face and continued, "Don't panic, but you are missing quite a few years. You are currently 22 years old, so that means you can't remember anything from the last 7 years". The doctor said don't panic, but that was easier said than done. Aria was really getting upset by this. She's 22! And she can't remember anything of it. She didn't remember graduating from high school with her friends, going off to college, and who knows what else she's missed out on! The doctor saw that Aria was freaking out and told her to get some rest and not think about it. Forcing herself to remember things would only make her recovery go slower. She needed lots and lots of rest and then everything would be fine. He also told her parents that Aria had enough excitement for the day and that it's best they leave now and come back tomorrow. Then they all left the room and Aria followed the doctor's advice and tried to go back to sleep.

On the ride home from the hospital, Ella and Byron didn't say a word to each other. Ella was too worried to talk, and Byron was off into his own little world coming up with a plan. When they got home Ella said, "I'm going to bed" and walked towards the stairs. "Wait!", Byron called after her. Ella turned around and said, "What is it Byron? Because if this is another one of your angry rants, then it'll just have to wait until tomorrow". Byron sighed, but realized his wife was right, he hadn't been the most enjoyable person to be around today. "No, it's…about Aria. I've been doing some thinking and I think we should let her move back in", Byron told Ella. Ella looked surprised and said, "And what makes you think she'd want to move back in here?". Byron smirked and said, "Because…as far as she knows, she's got no other place to go". "What exactly are you saying here?", Ella asked him.  
>Byron replied, "I'm saying that life has given us a second chance for us to be a normal, happy family again. She doesn't remember any of our fights, we can start over again. And most important of all, she has no idea who Ezra is, and as far as I'm concerned, she never will".<p>

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><p><strong>So…that happened! So that was chapter 1 of my new story, I really hope you liked reading it as much as I loved writing it! So please review and tell me what you think of it so far! Thanks!<strong>


	2. Plan in motion

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pretty Little Liars

**Author's note:** Thanks for the lovely reviews! I'm really glad you like the story so far!  
>To answer some questions:<br>- _Where is Mike?_ In the previous chapter, under the author's note it said "information about the story". In there I said that Mike got very sick when Aria  
>was 18 and he died.<br>- _Why did you kill off Mike?_ I realized that if I had Mike in my story, then Mike would tell Ezra and/or Aria about his 'parents plan. Whether or not he was  
>still living there or not, there was the chance of him finding out and spilling the beans. I already know what's going to happen in the story, and Mike<br>would have gotten in the way of that, so I killed him, mhuahaha. But seriously, after I mapped out the story I was like "Oh crap! I forgot about Mike",  
>and I decided he just didn't fit in the story, so I decided to go with the "he got sick and died" storyline for him. Plus, there's the added drama when<br>she finds out he's gone and has to deal with his death all over again.

Enjoy!

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><p>The next morning Ezra was still sleeping in his bed, when the siren of a police car outside woke him up. He groaned because he wasn't ready to wake up yet, after all he didn't get that much sleep. Still with his eyes closed trying to go back to sleep, he turned around and wanted to put his arm around Aria and pull her closer, but he felt that she wasn't there. His eyes opened and he sighed, she still hadn't come back. Okay, they did have a fight yesterday, but Ezra thought Aria would have cooled down and returned to him by now. Though this was kind of unknown territory for them, because they never had fights. Well, not like the one they had last night at least. They had disagreements sometimes, but they were usually about nothing and were forgotten and forgiven in no time. But this…this was serious. "Maybe I overreacted?", Ezra thought to himself. Ezra took his cell phone of his nightstand and dialed her number. Voicemail. He tried again several times, but every time her phone went to voicemail. "Alright, so she's ignoring my calls", Ezra said and sighed.<p>

Meanwhile, Ella and Byron had already arrived at the hospital to see their daughter again and how she was doing. After what Byron had said last night, Ella had told him to get some sleep, that he would see things clearer in the morning. But, he didn't. Before they left for the hospital they had a talk, and they decided that maybe it was worth trying. After all, all they really wanted was their daughter back. Worst case scenario, Aria finds out what they tried to do and never speaks to them again, but that was already the case. They decided they had nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing this, so they decided to do it. When they walked into the room Aria was awake and eating breakfast. "Hey sweetie, how are you feeling today?", Ella asked smiling. Aria smiled back and said, "Better. My head still hurts a lot though, but less than yesterday". "That's great honey, in a few days you'll be all better", Byron told her. Suddenly a nurse walked in and said, "Excuse me, I need one of you to come with me and sign some paperwork, if that's alright?". "That's no problem. I'll go", Byron told them. Byron followed the nurse to the nurse's desk and was handed the paperwork he needed to sign. Then the nurse handed him a plastic bag with some items in them and said, "These were her things that were brought in with her". Byron took the bag, said thank you and walked back to her room. All of a sudden he saw something that caught his eye in the bag, it was Aria's cell phone. He looked at the screen and it said "10 missed calls". He checked to see who they were from. No surprise there, they were all from Ezra.

Back at the apartment, Ezra was now out of bed. He had just taken a shower and was about to make himself some breakfast. He tried calling Aria again, but for the tenth time he got her voicemail. After finishing breakfast he decided to call her one more time, and just leave a voicemail apologizing for his behavior last night. He called her number and after a couple of rings someone picked up. Before Aria could say anything else, Ezra decided to just explain how sorry he was. "Aria, I am really sorry about our fight last night. I was wrong. You were right, this job is a huge opportunity for you. So if this is really what you want, then we'll move. I would do anything to make you happy", Ezra rambled on. All of a sudden he heard a voice on the other side of the phone he didn't expect. "Aria doesn't want to talk to you right now", Byron said. Ezra was shocked, he didn't really know what to say. Ezra was honestly not expecting this. "Byron? Why are you answering Aria's phone?", Ezria asked confused. "Because she asked me too, because she's my daughter, that's why. Aria doesn't want to talk to you anymore, she wants you to leave her alone", Byron said coldly. "What? Why?", Ezra asked in disbelief. Byron was lucky that Ezra mentioned their fight at the beginning of the conversation, this was way too easy. "Because of your fight last night. She has realized that you are not right for her and that it was all a huge mistake. She told me to tell you that it's over", Byron said with a smug look on his face. "Could you put her on the phone please? I really need to talk to her, she's got it all wrong. I can't believe this", Ezra said starting to panic. "Well, I think that for the first time in her life she's finally got it right. You've ruined enough in her life, the least you can do now is stay away from her. Goodbye Ezra", Byron said. "Wait!", Ezra yelled, but it was too late. Byron had already hung up the phone.

In the hospital, Byron put off Aria's cell phone and put it in his pocket. Then he went through the rest of the bag and removed everything that might remind her of Ezra. Then he walked back into the room. "I'm back! Everything is taken care off now", Byron said looking at Ella. Ella instantly understood what he meant by that. "So, what did I miss?", Byron asked. "Nothing much really, Aria was just saying how she can't wait to go home with us", Ella told her husband smiling. Byron turned to Aria and said, "That's great! So, any luck remembering anything, anything at all?". Aria sighed sadly and said, "No, nothing at all". Byron and Ella looked at each other with a look that said, "Maybe this will work out after all".

Back at the apartment Ezra was besides himself. The woman he was madly and passionately in love with, his soulmate, had just informed him, through her father nonetheless, that they were over. How could she do this to him? She's the most important person in his life, didn't she feel the same way? Well, apparently not, since she broke up with him. Maybe he had given her the impression she wasn't important to him last night? He did say he wasn't going to give up his life here for her, for her career. But he didn't mean it, he would give up everything for her. He was just upset when he said those things. But the way she was reacting now, it just wasn't like her, it wasn't the Aria he knew. She was definitely overreacting to all of this. If she would just cool down and talk to him, he was sure they could work this out. And why on earth did she go to her parents? She hadn't spoken or seen them in years, and now all of a sudden she's asking her dad to break up with him? This doesn't make sense. All these thoughts were racing through his mind, what was really going on here? "I'm just going to let her cool down for a couple of days", Ezra said. "If she doesn't call me or come by to talk things through by then, I'll just call her. She'll change her mind", Ezra continued.

A couple of days later, the doctor told Aria and her parents that the swelling in her brain was completely gone and that she was ready to go home. Aria was upset that she still couldn't remember anything of the past seven years. After all, the doctor did say that it was most likely the swelling that caused her partial memory loss. Now the swelling was gone, but unfortunately her memories hadn't returned yet. Aria felt really sad about the fact that she would probably never remember the most important years of her life. Getting her car license, graduating with her friends, going off to college,… And who knows? Maybe even a boyfriend or two, and maybe a couple of heartbreaks too. And if she did have a boyfriend in those seven years, she doesn't even remember her first time having sex, or any of the other times for that matter. She couldn't grasp the fact that she was already twenty-two. She didn't feel twenty-two on the inside, even though she did look twenty-two on the outside. The first time she had looked at herself in the mirror was quite shocking. Sure, she still looked like herself, but something was different about her. She looked older, she seemed more mature, maybe wiser even. Her hair was definitely different. Last time she saw herself in the mirror she had pink streaks in her hair. Now it was long and dark and wavy. She liked the way she looked, it's like she went to sleep as a girl and woke up as a woman. A woman who couldn't remember her transition from a girl to a woman, but a woman nonetheless.

After all the paperwork was sorted out, they were ready to go home. She wondered what her room looked like. Surely her room would bring back some memories right? Knowing herself, her room was probably full of pictures from the last couple of years. Her room had always been full of pictures and other stuff that reminded her of something. She could never throw anything away, because it always had some meaning to her. So surely, to be surrounded by those things would trigger some or maybe all of her memory, right? When she got home, the first thing she did was run up to her room. She opened the door and was surprised to see her room was almost empty. Not to mention it looked like nobody had even lived there for the last couple of years. She walked in and went to sit on the bed, looking around at her room, it felt so…naked. Her mom walked in, saw the disappointed look on her daughter's face and asked, "What's wrong honey?". Aria looked up at her mom and said, "My room. It's so…empty. I thought it would have been full of memories here, to help me remember, but there's nothing here. It's like I haven't even been living here". Ella opened her mouth, but didn't know what to say. Maybe she should just come out and tell her daughter the truth? That she's been living with her boyfriend for the past four years. Suddenly Byron walked in and said, "Well honey, it's because you haven't been living here for the past four years". Aria looked up confused at her father, "What do you mean, I haven't been living here, where did I live then?", she asked. Ella looked at her husband with a confused look. Was he feeling as guilty as she was? Was he going to tell her the truth? Byron went to sit on the bed next to Aria and said, "For the last four years, you've been going to college and you insisted on living in a college dorm. I believe your exact words were 'I want to have the full college experience'. So even though you didn't live too far from your college, you were living in a college dorm. You just graduated from college and you were on your way home to us when you had your accident. After the paramedics arrived and got you out, the car caught fire, burning all your stuff in the process. I'm really sorry honey. We wanted to tell you sooner, but we didn't want to upset you". Aria started getting tears in her eyes. All of her stuff, all of her memories, they had all gone up in flames. It was all gone, and so was her hope of ever regaining her memory.

In the meanwhile, Ezra was still waiting on a phone call from his girlfriend, or was it his ex-girlfriend now? He didn't know what to think anymore. It really seemed like it was really over. After all that they went through, it seemed so weird that something like this would be the death of their relationship. He just knew her parents were involved in this, probably telling her that he was no good and that she was better off without him. They probably already set her up on a date with some other guy, like they tried to do before. He couldn't take it anymore, he felt so lost without her. He needed to see her face, hear her voice, feel her skin, kiss her lips. He grabbed his phone and dialed her number. It went straight to voicemail, so Ezra hung up. "So either she's sending my calls straight to voicemail because she doesn't want to speak to me, or maybe she turned it off", Ezra thought to himself. He hoped it was the latter, because he couldn't bare the thought of her deliberately not speaking to him…maybe even hating him. He decided to call her again and just leave a message. "Aria…I really need you to talk to me, so please pick up the phone. I know I was wrong, I would do anything for you. I love you. Please don't throw away everything that we have". Ezra hung up the phone and sighed. Then he walked over to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of scotch. He brought the glass to his mouth to drink from it, but changed his mind at the very last second. He put his glass back down and said, "This isn't the answer to my problem. Aria is the answer, and I'm going to get her back right now". Ezra grabbed his things, left his apartment and got into his car. Destination: the Montgomery's house.

Ezra arrived at the Montgomery's house, parked his car and walked over to the door. Ella, who was sitting in the living room with her husband, saw him coming up their driveway through the window. "Oh my God, Byron. Ezra is walking up our driveway", she said. Byron got up from the couch and said, "Okay, don't panic, it'll be fine. Where's Aria?". Ella looked up the stairs and said, "She's in her room. She felt tired so she's probably sleeping". The doorbell rang. "Okay, I'm going to get the door. You go upstairs and check on Aria. See if she's asleep. If she is, just wait by her door until Ezra's gone. If she's not, just keep her busy", Byron explained. Ella did what she was told and headed upstairs. Byron walked over to the door, and as soon as he opened it, Ezra said, "Where's Aria? I need to see her". Byron looked at Ezra, whom he also hadn't seen in years. After Aria made the decision to choose Ezra over them, Byron didn't feel like bumping into him at Hollis College, so he quit his job there. Ezra hadn't changed a bit, he still looked exactly the same as he did four years ago. Though Byron could tell that Ezra looked really tired and upset, but he didn't care one bit about that. "Aria's not here", Byron said coldly. "What do you mean, Aria's not here? Where is she then?", Ezra asked. Byron didn't really know what to say to that. The only thing he knew was that their fight was about a job and moving, but he had no idea which job or where they would have to move. So, he just decided to go with what he did know and said, "Aria isn't living here anymore. She took that job and she moved". Ezra's face turned white and he just stood there staring at nothing. He snapped out of it and asked, "She moved to Manhattan! By herself!". "Yes, Ezra, she moved to Manhattan. She's not by herself right now, Ella went with her to help her get settled into her new apartment. But when Ella gets back, then yes, she will be by herself. Which is, in my opinion, an upgrade from her previous situation", Byron replied. Ezra gave Byron a mean look and said with anger in his voice, "I don't care what you think. All I care about is your daughter. So believe me when I say that I will get her back, whether you like it or not. Because she might be upset with me now, but we love each other, and in the end that's all that matters". Byron smirked at him and said, "Well, good luck with that", and he shut the door.

When Ezra was back in his apartment, he tried calling Aria again, but he was still getting her voicemail. Then it suddenly hit him, he could just try calling her at work. That way she couldn't see who was calling her. So he looked up the number and called the publishing house. After being on hold he finally got through and a woman on the other end asked how she might be able to help him. "I'm looking for Aria Montgomery, one of your employees, I was wondering if you could put me through to her office?", Ezra asked. After hearing her type into her computer, the woman said, "I'm sorry sir, but there's no one working here by the name of Aria Montgomery". "Well, maybe she's not in the computer yet? She just started working there", Ezra explained. "Hold on. I'll check again", the woman replied. A little bit later the woman said, "I'm sorry sir. I double-checked. There's no one by the name of Aria Montgomery working here. The only Aria Montgomery we do have in our database never replied to our job offer". "Oh, okay, thanks anyways. Have a nice day", Ezra said. The woman said goodbye and Ezra hung up the phone. Ezra sat on his couch looking really confused. "What is going on here?", Ezra said out loud. He got off his couch and walked over to the kitchen counter where his glass from before was. He really needed that drink right now.

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><p><strong>So that was chapter 2 of my story. Hope you liked it. Please review! <strong>


	3. The encounter

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pretty Little Liars

**Author's note:** Thanks for reviews! To answer a question, the rest of the girls are off living their own lives, they lost touch a little. Plus, Aria's parents didn't tell anyone about the accident.

Happy reading!

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><p>A few weeks had gone by since Ezra visited the Montgomery's house. Ezra had called Aria every day, but it always went straight to voicemail and she never returned his calls. Ezra had given up all hope of ever winning Aria back, she clearly didn't want anything to do with him anymore. Ezra's days consisted out of waking up, taking a shower, eating last night's leftovers for breakfast, teach at Hollis, going home, ordering take-out , eating while grading papers and then going to sleep to do it all again the next day. He was a wreck, his heart felt like it was being crushed by the weight of the world. It wasn't fair what she did to him, how she lied to him like that, or in this case: make her parents lie for her.<p>

In the few weeks that had gone by, Aria didn't have an easy time either. She had learned that her friend Alison had been murdered after that night in the barn, that her father had had an affair and worst of all… her brother was dead. At first she was very sad that she couldn't remember anything, but after hearing all the bad stuff, she was kind of glad she couldn't remember it. She wished her parents had never told her about some of those bad things, but her parents had told her they just wanted to be honest with her.

The day when she got home from the hospital a few weeks ago, she had gone up to her room, hoping her personal things would trigger her memory. But after seeing her room and how empty it was, she found out that all of her personal things were burned after her car had caught fire. That was the first of many bad news she was going to get. She was worrying so much, she had given herself a head ache, so she decided to get some rest. When it was time for dinner, Aria wondered where Mike was and asked her parents why she hadn't seen him yet. It was then that Aria was told that her brother had died. Apparently, when Aria was eighteen, Mike had gotten very sick very fast. There wasn't anything the doctors could do about it, so not too long after that, Mike passed away. Aria was absolutely devastated by this news, life was so unfair. First taking Mike away from her, then taking away her memory,…

Every time her parents told her, "We have to tell you something", Aria's stomach clenched in fear. Because every time they used that sentence, it meant bad news. It also made Aria wonder whether anything good had happened during those years, because all she heard were bad things. So maybe it was a good thing she didn't remember anything? And she sure as hell wasn't going to force herself into remembering, if it meant getting bad memories back.

Back at his apartment Ezra had the day off, which meant sitting in his pajamas all day grading papers and wallowing in self-pity. He went to the computer to check his email. He had gotten a couple of emails, but none that really mattered, because none were from Aria. Then all of a sudden, another email caught his eye. It was an email from the bookstore telling him the book he had ordered had come in. Ezra decided that maybe a trip to the bookstore would be a good idea, it used to always make him feel better, maybe it would do the same now. He got dressed and then left for the bookstore.

Back at the Montgomery's house, Aria was bored out of her mind. Okay, she was suffering from memory loss, but she had no idea why her parents needed to keep her in the house 24/7. Not to mention, she didn't have a cell phone, or a laptop. The only thing she could do all day was read the handful of books she had in her room, which she each had read about ten times by now, or go downstairs to watch TV. She wanted to call her friends, but her parents told her that after Alison was murdered they stopped being friends. She felt like a prisoner in her own house, with no friends whatsoever. She went downstairs to talk to her mother, she was in the kitchen making lunch. Aria plopped down on a chair at the kitchen table and let out a huge sigh. Ella heard her daughters' sigh and asked, "What's wrong honey?". Aria looked at her mom with a slight pout and responded, "Well… I'm bored. And I feel like a total prisoner". Ella had a shocked expression on her face when Aria said she felt like a prisoner.

Ella stopped what she was doing and took a seat next to her daughter and said, "I'm sorry you feel that way, Aria. But it's only been a couple of weeks since your accident. You need to rest". Aria was clearly annoyed at this and replied, "I've been resting for weeks. I'm all rested out. And maybe the resting part wouldn't be so bad if I actually had something to do while resting. All my stuff burned in that car fire, so maybe I should go shopping to replace it? I mean, resting would be a lot more fun if I had a laptop, or at least some new books to read". Ella didn't really know what to do or say here. Byron was at work right now and he was usually the one telling Aria why she couldn't do certain things. And Byron would never agree with Aria getting a laptop, that would mean she had access to the internet, her email, and ultimately Ezra. But since Byron wasn't here, she would just have to come up with something herself. Ella saw the pleading look in her daughter's eyes and said, "Fine. We'll go shopping. But we're not getting you a laptop, it's too expensive. But, I guess it wouldn't hurt if we went to the bookstore and got you some new books to read". Aria's face brightened and she gave her mother a big hug and said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!". After they had lunch, Aria and Ella left to go to the bookstore.

At the bookstore, Ezra walked up to the counter and said, "Excuse me, my name's Ezra Fitz. I got an email that the book I ordered was in". The guy at the counter searched the books on the shelves behind him, took one out, handed it over to Ezra, and said, "Here you go. Will that be all?". Ezra looked into the store and replied, "No, I think I'll browse some more first", and he walked further into the store.

Aria and Ella walked into the bookstore. Aria looked around her, feeling right at home. Ella was checking out the books that were on sale at the front of the store, when Aria wandered off, going further into the store. She was at the end of the isle she was browsing, when she turned the corner and bumped into someone. "Oh, sorry", both Aria and the other person said at the same time. Aria looked up into the eyes of the man in front of her, he was cute. Aria smiled and said, "It's okay", and continued her way onto the next isle.

Ezra was walking down his isle, with his head tilted so he could read the book titles as he went along. When he turned the corner, he bumped into someone. He apologized to the person in front of him. But when he looked up, he realized he was face to face with Aria. He was so happy to see her, he smiled and just as he was about to speak, he heard Aria say it was okay and she walked away. Ezra was upset and confused at the same time. He turned around and said, "Oh, so you're just going to pretend you don't know me at all then!".

Aria turned around to see that the man, whom she had just bumped in to, was talking to her. She took a good hard look at him and remembered him, "Right….I remember you. I bumped into you once before, at Hollis College. I was visiting my dad, he used to be a professor there. Were you one of his students?". Ezra stood there confused with his mouth open, what was she saying? Ezra snapped out of it and said, "Excuse me, what! Aria, what's happening here?".

"You know my name, so I know you?", Aria asked herself and him out loud. Ezra shook his head in disbelief and confusion and said, "Aria, of course I know you. What are you talking about? Is everything all right with you?". Aria looked Ezra up and down, trying to remember him, but she ended up shaking her head in disappointment. "I'm sorry. I… don't remember you. Or anything else that has happened during the last seven years of my life, really. I was in a car accident a few weeks ago and I hit my head pretty hard, that's why I'm now suffering from memory loss. So I'm really sorry if I upset you, but I really can't help it". Ezra's eyes widened as she told him this, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Why was he not informed about this? Ezra, who clearly looked shocked, said, "Oh my god, Aria…Are you okay!", and then proceeded to hug her tightly.

Aria stiffened at his touch. Why was this stranger hugging her like this? Sure, he probably knew her, but this hug was a bit more "intimate" than she liked. Ezra noticed that Aria didn't really care for him hugging her so he let go and said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable. It's just that… we know each other, very well actually. It's me… Ezra?". Ezra looked into her eyes, really staring into them, hoping she would remember him. Aria stared back into Ezra's eyes, but she didn't remember him at all. Aria sadly shook her head. Ezra nodded understandingly, placed his hand on her shoulder and said, "It's okay. How about we go get a cup of coffee and then I can tell you all about us?". Before Aria could respond to his question, Ella found Aria and saw who she was with. Ella panicked and grabbed Aria by the arm, quickly dragging her out of the store.

Outside of the store, Ella was walking to the car, still dragging Aria by the arm. Aria suddenly stopped, claimed back her arm and said, "What is going on here! Why did you drag me out of the store all of a sudden!". Ella turned to Aria and said, "I'll explain it once we're in the car. But right now, we really need to go". Aria looked at her mother questionably, but she did what she was told and they continued their way to the car.

Inside the bookstore, Ezra was still standing in the same spot he was just a few minutes ago, staring at the door. He was unable to move or say anything because of everything that had just happened. Then it suddenly hit him that he coudn't lose her again, so he snapped out of it and ran outside after her. When Ezra was outside he looked around trying to locate her, but he couldn't find her. Aria was already gone.

After driving in silence for about five minutes, Aria looked at her mother and said, "So? Explanation please?". Ella sighed and looked at her daughter, "Fine. I'll explain. The man you were just talking to? Well, you know him. Very well, actually. When you were sixteen, he was your English teacher, and you really looked up to him. He knew that, and he took advantage of that. This one day, he had asked you to stay late after school to discuss something, but he made an inappropriate pass at you. You left immediately and came straight home and told us. He was fired the next day because of it". Aria sat there, with her mouth open in shock. The cute guy she had just met was actually… Ewww, and he had just hugged her. Ella looked at her daughter and saw the disgusted look on her face. Ella said, "I'm sorry we didn't tell you this before. We thought we wouldn't have to, because we didn't think you'd ever see him again. It's our job as parents to protect you from guys like that, he will never hurt you again. So if you ever see him again, just stay away from him, he's… not who he seems". Aria turned to her mother, nodded and said, "Of course". Aria turned her head to stare out the window, thinking, "The bad news just keeps on coming".

Ezra had gone home after his run-in at the bookstore, because he needed some time to think. After hours of thinking and looking at this from every possible angle, he realized there was only one explanation: her parents had brainwashed her. "I can't believe they would do something like this!", Ezra said angrily and picked up a book to throw it to the other side of his apartment. Ezra got his car keys and drove over to the Montgomery's house. There was no way they would be getting away with this, Aria and him were in love and nobody was going to get in between them.

When Ella and Aria got home, Aria went to her room to get some rest, she wasn't feeling too well. When Byron got home from work a couple of hours later, Ella took him aside to talk about what had happened earlier. Ella looked at Byron with a very serious but worried face and said, "Something happened today, and I don't think you're going to like it. Aria was begging me to take her shopping, to buy some new books to read, she said she felt like a prisoner. I didn't think there would be anything wrong with that, but…while we were there…she bumped into Ezra". Byron's face looked panicky and mad at the same time and said, "WHAT! How could you do something like that? Where's Aria right now? Did she remember? Did she go with him? What did Ezra do?". Ella placed her hand on Byron's shoulder and said, "Calm down Byron! Aria's upstairs sleeping. I dealt with it". Byron looked at his wife with a confused look and said, "How?". Ella replied, "I got her out of the store as soon as I saw them together. Then, when we were driving home I told her that she knew him from when he was her teacher. And then I lied to her, saying that he tried to take advantage of her and tried making an inappropriate pass at her one day after school and he was fired because of it. I told her to never go near him again and she promised she wouldn't". Byron, seeming more at ease now, said, "Good. That's good. What about Ezra?". Ella didn't really know how to answer that question, what about Ezra? Ella looked worried again and said, "Honestly? I have no idea… I have no clue how long they were standing there talking to each other, or what they were talking about. But I assume he knows something's wrong". Byron shook his head in disappointment and said, "You shouldn't have taken her. This could ruin our entire plan! You just know he's going to show up at our door". Ella sighed and said, "We don't know that, okay? But if he does, we will just deal with it then". Then Ella walked over to the kitchen to start on dinner.

A bit later Ella, Aria and Byron were having dinner, in silence. Aria looked from one parent to the other, she could sense something was wrong, they didn't even look at each other. Suddenly the doorbell rang and Ella and Byron looked at each other, both with a worried look on their face. Neither of them knew what was going to happen now, but they had a suspicion as to who was at their door. Byron got up from the table and said, "I'll get it". He walked over to the door, opened it, and his suspicion was confirmed. Ezra Fitz was standing there, right in front of him, seemingly angry.

When Ezra arrived at the Montgomery's house, he parked his car, walked over to the door and rang the doorbell. Not too long after that, the door opened and there was Byron, standing in front of him. Ezra had this whole speech prepared how he couldn't believe what they were doing to their daughter and how they wouldn't be able to get away with it. but before Ezra could even open his mouth, Byron said, "I had a feeling you were going to show up here. You need to leave, right now. You need to leave our daughter alone". Ezra took a step closer to Byron and said, "No. I will not".

Aria was still sitting at the kitchen table. She took a sip from her drink until she suddenly heard someone yell out her name. She recognized this voice from earlier. Aria got up from the table and headed for the door. Ella ran after her to stop her, but it was too late, she was already at the door.

Byron saw that Ezra was looking at something behind him. He turned around and saw that Aria was walking towards the door and said, "Aria, I think it's best you leave". Aria kept on walking, when she reached her dad she stopped and said, "I've got this". She turned to Ezra, who was standing there with a hopeful look on his face. Ezra said, "Aria… I'm so glad you came. Does this mean you remember me?". Aria looked at Ezra with a look he had never seen before, a look he couldn't describe, but it wasn't good. Aria said, "No, I don't. But I know what you did…Or at least what you tried to do. You need to leave me alone, right now. I don't want you anywhere near me, you disgust me". Then she turned around and headed up the stairs, leaving a very heartbroken Ezra at the door.

But Ezra wasn't going to go down without a fight, he loved this girl, he would make her see that. Ezra tried to run after Aria, but Byron stopped him. As Byron held him back, Ezra yelled, "Aria! I don't know what they told you, but don't believe it. It's not true. I love you. We've been in love for years. Please remember me?". As Aria heard the desperation in those final words she turned around to look at him, and she saw even more desperation in his eyes. Then she turned back around and headed to her room. As Ezra saw Aria leaving, he stopped trying to get past Byron and Byron took this as his chance to push Ezra out the door and close it.

Aria had just entered her room, kind of confused about what had just happened. Why would this guy go through all this trouble to come to her house? Especially if she was the reason he got fired? It didn't really matter though, this guy was definitely not mentally stable and clearly needed help for it.

As Ezra left the Montgomery's driveway he noticed that the light in Aria's room went on. He walked back and ran over to her window to see her window was half open. He went through his pocket trying to find a piece of paper he could use. After finding that, he took the pen that was in his breast pocket and wrote something onto the piece of paper. He crumpled the piece of paper together, threw it through her window and then he left.

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><p><strong>Alright, that was chapter 3! Hope you liked it! So…. What do you think is on the piece of paper?<br>Please review!**


	4. Dream a little dream

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pretty Little Liars

Enjoy!

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><p>Aria plopped down onto her bed with a huge sigh, another evening of utter boredom. And thanks to mister pervert, she was dragged out of the store without even being able to buy some new books. Suddenly she saw something fly in through the window and it dropped onto the floor. She got off her bed, picked it up and then walked over to the window to see who threw it. "No surprise there", she thought as she watched Ezra walk back to his car.<p>

She sat back down onto her bed and opened the piece of paper, it read "B-26". Aria turned over the paper to see if there was anything else written on it, but that wasn't the case. "B-26? What's that supposed to mean?", Aria thought out loud. She said B-26 out loud a couple of times, but it meant nothing to her. Was it some kind of code or? She shook her head in annoyance, crumpled up the paper and threw it in the paper bin next to her desk.

She laid herself down onto her bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about everything that had happened today. She went to the bookstore and the man she had bumped into said they knew each other, very well actually. Her mother said the same thing in the car, that she knew this man very well. Which would be true, because he was her teacher. The fact that he had made an inappropriate pass at her seemed weird, because he did seem like a genuinely nice guy. But then again, her mother had warned her that he wasn't what he seemed. But if she got him fired for it, then why would he offer to buy her a coffee to explain her about "us". As far as Aria knew, there was no "us". Aria found the whole thing confusing, and she didn't really know what to do with it. "I don't know what they told you, but don't believe it", those were his exact words. Why would he say something like that? Not to mention the way he said it…with so much desperation. "We've been in love for years", what if he was right? No… there's no way he could be right. There was no way her parents would lie to her like that, parents are there to protect you. Then again… it did seem rather strange how her room looked like it hadn't been lived in for years. But that was explained by the fact that she had stayed in the college dorms. So either her parents were lying to her about this guy, or this guy was really obsessed with her. There was no way her parents would ever lie to her, so it wouldn't matter if she did some research on this guy, right? It wasn't like she was really going to find something, right?

Aria got up from her bed and started looking through some stuff in her room trying to link this "B-26" to something. After going through everything in her room, she found absolutely nothing. Which was good, right? Because it meant her parents weren't lying? Or maybe it just meant that whatever this "B-26" refers too, wasn't in her room? Aria kicked her bed, annoyed that she couldn't remember anything. Aria brought her hand to her forehead and rubbed it. "Great, another headache, just what I needed", she said. Aria changed into her pajamas and decided it would probably be better if she went to bed early, at least when she slept she didn't feel the pain. Not too long after she got into bed, she fell asleep and had a very vivid dream.

_Aria was driving around in her car, she noticed she was in Rosewood. She passed her high school, a sports field, and then all of a sudden she passed a bar. The bar looked pretty old, and right above the door there was a sign with the bar's name on it, B-26. Aria parked her car right in front of the bar. She looked around her, but there was no one else there. She decided to walk inside. She walked through the door, but when she got inside, it was just an empty room. No bar, no chairs, no tables, no people. She took a few more steps into the room, looking around. Suddenly, she heard a song in the background, a melody. She tried to listen to the lyrics, but she couldn't understand one word of it. She started looking for a music installation, maybe if she got closer to the source of the music, she would be able to understand the words. But it was no use, the room was empty, no music installation. She decided to leave and she walked out of the bar. When she was outside, she saw something on her right. She saw a falafel stand that wasn't there before, the sign next to it said "B-26". She decided to get back into her car, but it wasn't there anymore. Where her car was just standing, was now another car, a silver Toyota Camry. Inside she could see two people kissing each other, but she couldn't make out their faces. She walked over to the back of the car, there she saw the license plate "B-26". The back window was fogged up, so she took her finger and wrote "I see you" on it. Then she walked away from the car. She walked across the street to see an apartment building, house number… yet again "B-26". She decided to go inside and she walked through the door. Suddenly she was standing inside of someone's apartment now, it looked very familiar. She saw a desk, a typewriter, lots of books and empty boxes of take-out on the table. Suddenly she heard a cell phone ring, it was hers, and she was holding it. Caller id "B-26". She picked up the phone, but all she could hear was a lot of static. She tried to listen very carefully, but she couldn't really make out anything of what was being said, except for "wait for me, please" and "Aria". She hung up the phone. Suddenly she was startled by someone pounding on the door. On the other side of the door she could hear someone say, "Open this door, right now! We know you're in there Aria", it was the voice of her father. Suddenly her father busted in the door._

Suddenly Aria awakened from her dream, startled and out of breath. She was sweating like crazy and her head hurt even more than before she went to sleep. She looked at her clock, it was 4.30 AM. What kind of a dream was that? And what was with all this B-26 stuff everywhere in her dream? It had to mean something right?

Aria got out of bed and went to the bathroom to splash some water in her face. When she was in there, someone knocked on the door, "Aria, is that you in there?". Aria walked over to the bathroom door and opened it. She saw Byron standing right in front of her. Just when she was about to say something, she got a stab of pain in her head and she screamed out in pain, grabbing the place where it hurt with her hand. Byron panicked, touched her arm and said, "Aria, are you okay?". All of a sudden she remembered her dad grabbing her by the arm, dragging her away, saying "You come with me young lady. You know you are not allowed to see him anymore!". Byron shook Aria by the shoulder, trying to snap her out of it, "Aria? Aria? Are you okay? What's wrong?". Aria looked at him with a questioning look on her face. Should she tell him? She decided it would probably be best if she didn't and said, "I'm fine. It's just another headache. I'm just going to go back to sleep". And then Aria went back to her room to sleep. Byron returned to his room as well.

The next morning Ella woke up Aria, "Hey sweetie, I heard you had a rough night? I'm sorry. So how about we go get you those new books today, seeing as we didn't get the chance to yesterday?". Aria rubbed her sleepy eyes, smiled and said, "Okay, that sounds great". After Aria took a shower, got dressed and had breakfast, they got in the car to go to the bookstore.

When they were on their way to the bookstore, Aria was looking out of the window taking in the scenery. All of a sudden Aria spotted the bar from her dreams, but the bar wasn't named "B-26". Aria yelled "Stop!". Ella was startled and immediately stopped the car. Aria undid her seatbelt, got out of the car and ran towards the bar. Ella looked confused and yelled after her daughter, "Aria! What are you doing!". Ella leaned over to the passenger's side of the car and closed Aria's door. Then she proceeded to find a parking space so she could go after her daughter.

Aria heard her mother yelling at her from a distance, but she didn't care. She needed to find out why this bar was in her dreams, and how it was related to "B-26". As she walked inside she saw that the room was definitely not empty, like it had been in her dreams, but there weren't that many people in the bar either. One man was sitting at the bar, another man was sitting at a table and then there was a young couple sitting at another table. Aria heard music and looked around, it was coming from the jukebox. She walked over to it sand saw that there were letter-number combinations for the songs. She looked for B-26, put in the money and played it. A few seconds later the song started playing, it was the same melody from her dream. Aria started smiling, though she didn't really know why.

Suddenly the girl at the table signaled the bartender and said, "Can we get two cheeseburgers over here, please?". Aria got a stab of pain to her head and remembered ordering a cheeseburger here. She started feeling sick from the pain and she walked into the bathroom to splash some water on her face. After she splashed her face with cold water, she looked at herself in the mirror. She looked like a mess. She couldn't look at herself anymore, so she turned around and leaned against the bathroom countertop. She got another stab of pain to the head and she remembered someone saying "I'd like to know more about you". The voice sounded like Ezra's.

In the meanwhile, Ella had parked the car and walked into the bar. She couldn't see her daughter so she asked the bartender if he might have seen her. The bartender pointed to the bathroom. Ella walked in and saw Aria leaning against the bathroom countertop, holding her head with her hands. She rushed to her daughter's side and asked, "Aria, what's wrong!". Aria replied, "My headaches, they're getting worse. I don't know how much longer I can take this pain". Ella looked very worried and asked, "Is that why you ran in here? Because you weren't feeling well?". Aria doesn't make eye contact with her mother, she didn't want to tell her the real reason why she was in here, so she lied and said, "Yes". Ella grabbed her cell phone and called the hospital to make an appointment with Aria's doctor. After the phone call, Aria turned back to her daughter and said, "Come on, let's go. The doctor said he'll see us right now". And then they left to go to the hospital.

When they were in the doctor's office, the doctor asked her a few questions. "How long have you been having these pains?", the doctor asked. Aria replied, "Ever since the accident I've been having headaches frequently, but those were manageable. The really painful stabs to the head, I got for the first time last night. And then again this morning, but the pain is just unbearable". The doctor nodded, scribbled some things down on a paper in front of him, and asked, "And is there anything you do or anything that happens before you get this pain?". Aria didn't know what to reply to this. The answer was yes, something did happen when she got this pain, she remembered something. But her mother was sitting right next to her, so she couldn't exactly say that, she didn't want her mother knowing anything about this before she herself knew what was going on. Aria shook her head. The doctor said, "Okay then. I suggest we take another scan to see if there's anything wrong. Mrs. Montgomery, you can go sit in the waiting room. I'll take Aria with me for her scan right now". Ella did was she was told and the doctor told Aria to follow him.

When they were in the room to take her scan she said, "Excuse me, doctor? There's actually something I didn't tell you just now. I wanted to, but I couldn't because my mother was in the room". The doctor looked at her with a questioning look and asked, "What did you want to tell me?". Aria replied, "I think I might know why I am having these pains. Last night I had a very strange dream and since then I've been remembering some things, small things, but they're always paired with painful stabs to the head". The doctor looked surprised and asked, "So, your memories are coming back?". Aria sighed and said, "I don't know. Maybe? Like I said, I didn't remember much, and I can't really figure out when these things happened, or if they actually happened". The doctor nodded and said, "I see. Well, just give it time. This is a good thing, even if it is paired with lots of pain. You have to understand that you suffered quite a blow to the head, so even though the swelling is gone, your brain is still recuperating. And if you really are remembering things, then it'll put more strain on your brain than usual. Let's just do that scan now, just to make sure". Aria smiled and said, "Okay. You won't tell my parents about this, right?". The doctor smiled back and said, "You're not a minor anymore. Doctor-patient confidentiality, don't worry, I won't tell them". After that, they proceeded to take a scan of Aria's head. When they went back to the doctor's office to discuss further, he told her that nothing out of the ordinary showed up on the scan. He prescribed Aria some painkillers, but advised her only to take one if the pain was unbearable.

On their way to the car, Ella stopped her daughter and asked, "Are you sure you're okay? You seem a little quiet". Aria turned to her mother and said, "I'm fine, honestly. I just try not to think of the pain". Ella nodded and said, "Okay then. Well, we should get you home so you can rest". Aria shook her head, "No! I'm okay, really. I feel much better now. We should still go to the bookstore, it'll be good for me", trying to persuade her mother. Aria wasn't lying when she said she was feeling much better. Keeping the fact that she was getting her memories back a secret from her parents, gave her stress. But now that she had been able to tell someone else, it had lifted a weight of her shoulders. Ella thought about it for a second and then agreed to go to the bookstore with Aria. Then they continued their way to the car and headed for the bookstore.

When they were at the bookstore, Aria started browsing for some books and picked a few out. As she was walking, one of the books she was holding slipped out of her hands and dropped to the floor. A man that was standing in the isle saw this, picked the book up and handed it over to Aria. Aria said thanks and took the book from the man. As she did this, she suddenly remembered someone handing her a book with "Poetry" on the cover whilst saying "Read B-26". Aria started thinking, so this B-26 is a poem, not a song? Aria looked around to see where her mother was. Ella was looking at some books in the back of the store. Aria walked over to the checkout desk and asked the guy behind it, "Excuse me? I was wondering if you could look something up for me? If I give you the title of a poem, would you be able to tell me who wrote it and in which poetry book it was published?". The guy behind the desk replied, "I don't think that should be a problem. What's the title of the poem?". Aria smiled and said, "The title is B-26, B dash 26". The guy typed B-26 on his keyboard, clicked a few times and then turned back to Aria, "The poem was written by an Ezra Fitz". Aria looked down at the ground…Ezra…so this is what he meant. Aria turned back to the guy and asked, "Do you sell the book it's published in? I would like to buy it". The guy looked it up into his computer and replied, "You're in luck. There's only one copy left. I'll go get it for you". About a minute or two later, the guy returned with the book and said, "Here you go. Will that be all?". Aria looked at the other books in her hand, what if her mother checked her books? Aria turned around to see where her mother was, but she wasn't standing where she was before. Aria turned to the guy behind the desk and said, "Yes. Just this book, please. Aria paid for the book and quickly put it away in her bag. Suddenly she saw her mother coming towards her. "Phew, just in time", Aria thought to herself. Ella reached her daughter and asked, "So, did you find any good new books?". Aria waved the books in her hand, smiled and said, "Yes, I was about to pay for them". Ella took the books out of Aria's hands, checked them and said, "Don't be silly, I'll pay for those". Ella put all of the books on the desk and paid for them. After that, they left the bookstore and headed home. Oh boy, was Aria glad she had paid for the other book herself before her mother saw it.

When they got home, Aria told her mother that she was going to her room to rest up a bit before dinner. Ella told her daughter to have a nice nap and then Aria made her way upstairs. As she entered her room, she walked over to her desk and put her new books on them. She went to sit on her bed and she took the poetry book out of her bag. She opened it and searched the index for poem B-26. It was page 22. She opened the book to page 22 and there, right in front of her, it was. "Ezra Fitz. B-26". She started reading the poem, and then she read it again, and again. "It's a song", the song she had heard in her dream and today in the bar? "It's a girl", what that supposed to mean her? "Gold falafel", she saw a falafel stand in her dream, maybe that's why she dreamt about it? "Phone calls", she had gotten a phone call in her dream from someone, she couldn't really understand what the person on the other side was saying, but maybe that was Ezra? "A foreign car", the Toyota Camry she had seen in her dream with the two people kissing inside. Were those two people… her and Ezra?

Aria didn't know what to think anymore. Was she just supposed to believe that the two people in that car had been her and Ezra? Was she supposed to believe that she would willingly be kissing her teacher? She would never do anything like that! So was this poem really about her? It probably was, right? Why else would he have thrown the name of this poem through her window if it wasn't about her? Aria didn't know how to feel about this. On one hand she felt confused and scared, she had no idea what this all meant. One the other hand she felt kind of excited, after all, this had triggered some of her memory. Whoever this man was, whatever he had done to her in the past, or hadn't done, she was grateful to him for causing this.

Aria wanted to hide the book somewhere so her parents wouldn't find it. She realized all too well, that if her parents were really lying to her, that seeing this book would make them realize that she had figured things out. And who knows what they would do then? And if they hadn't been lying to her, and they saw this book, they would think that she didn't trust them and believed Ezra over them. She remembered a secret hiding place of hers, a loose floorboard under her bed. Why hadn't she thought about this earlier? Maybe there was something else in there? She checked it, but there was nothing in there but an old cell phone. "Why would I hide a cell phone in there?", Aria asked herself. Aria put on the cell phone, she had to see what was on there. Four digit pin code… she didn't even remember having this phone, let alone it's pin code. Aria tried her old pin code, it worked! So this was her old number… Which meant that the cell phone that was destroyed in the car fire, had been a new number. She wondered for a second why she would get a new number, or another number for that matter, but decided that it wasn't important. Aria checked the cell phone. She first went to see if there were any messages left in her inbox… no messages. Then she went to check her contact list. There was only one number in there, and it belonged to…

Ezra Fitz.

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><p><strong>And that was chapter 4! I really hope you liked it, and I really hope you review! <strong>


	5. Just like old times

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pretty Little Liars

Happy reading!

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><p>Aria shook her head, there was no way she was dating her high school teacher. There had to be a perfectly reasonable explanation for this. Maybe he had given his phone number to all of his students, some teachers do that. But why would she hide a cell phone with just his number in it? "I love you. We've been in love for years", those had been his exact words. Was she really having an affair with her high school teacher? Well, he wasn't really her high school teacher anymore, she was twenty-two years old now, but still… it would mean she had started a relationship with him when she was his student…and she just didn't see herself doing something like that.<p>

The idea that her parents were lying to her, seemed very strange to her. She had always had such a good relationship with her parents… there was no way they would do something like this. If she really was in a relationship with this man, why would they keep her away from someone she loved? It just didn't make sense to her. But on the other hand, all the things she had stumbled upon until now kind of proved otherwise… she needed to know the truth, once and for all.

Ezra was in his office, grading papers as usual, but he couldn't really focus. All he could think about was Aria looking at him with disgust and telling him she didn't want anything to do with him. He realized he had come off as pretty desperate showing up at her house like that. He probably helped her parents by acting like that. The fact that he had thrown that paper through her window, the one that said "B-26", only proved how desperate he really was. Because really now, how was she ever to know what that meant, she had memory loss for goodness' sake. He felt so stupid even doing a thing like that, but at the time it seemed like the right thing to do. Then all of a sudden a thought popped into his mind… what if he were to buy a copy of the book and drop it off at her house? No, her parents would never give that book to her. Even if he mailed it to her, they would probably open the package first and just throw it away. There was absolutely no way he could give that book to her without them knowing it. Throwing the book through the window wasn't an option either, seeing as it would be too heavy, right? Unless… he tore out his page and threw it through her window, given that her window was open again like it had been last night. There was always the possibility that she wouldn't understand the meaning behind it, but it was worth a shot, right? Ezra got up from behind his desk, closed up his office and left for the bookstore.

When Ezra got to the bookstore, he went to the isle where the poetry book was. The bookstore had only carried a couple of copies of the book, and last time he checked there was only one copy left. Every time he went to the bookstore, he would go and check to see if the book was still there. When he was there, he saw that the book was gone. Suddenly he felt a bit hopeful, maybe Aria had been here and bought it? But then he realized there's no way she would have known that "B-26" was a poem, or even in which book it was published. He figured they probably removed the book to make room for a book that would actually sell. So maybe they still kept it in the stock room? He went over to the checkout desk and asked the guy behind it if they had that book. The guy said, "What a coincidence, someone else was looking for that book earlier today. But unfortunately it was the last one, so I'm afraid I can't help you right now. But if you want I can order you a copy?". Ezra's eyes lightened up when he said that, so maybe it was her who had bought the book? Maybe she had gotten her memory back? "Excuse me, may I ask who was looking for the book, what did they look like?", Ezra asked. The guy looked at him a bit weirdly and replied, "Petite, brown hair, glued to your side every time you came here together. I always assumed she was your girlfriend? She was here with her mom, did you guys break up or something?". Ezra thought the guy was a bit too enthusiastic as he asked that last question. He gave the guy a warning look as he said, "No, we haven't broken up. We're just going through something at the moment, but it seems like it'll work out". Ezra felt so happy, so it had been her! Ezra didn't really know what to do now, I mean, she got the book, so there really wasn't anything he could do? He decided to go back to his apartment and think of something else he could do, he was going to do everything he could to make her remember him.

When Ezra got back to his apartment, he looked around and noticed all of Aria's things. The reason he had all of those things in his apartment, was because she had been living there for years. If only he could take her back to their apartment, then she would instantly realize her parents were lying to her. But that seemed like an impossible idea. First of all, her parents never let her leave the house alone and second of all, Aria would probably call the cops on him if he "whisked her away". He could only imagine the bad things her parents had said about him, she probably thought he was some weird stalker trying to kidnap her. But maybe he could just drop by her house every night at the same time, try and get her attention by the window, and maybe throw in something that would make her remember something about him, about them?

It seemed like a good idea to Ezra, so he decided to go through things in his apartment, trying to find something for tonight. As he was about to start, his phone vibrated to let him know he had received a message. He looked at his phone, the number seemed familiar. Then he remembered, this had been the number Aria had used when her parents had forbidden her to see him. She had bought a new phone with another number after the whole A thing and she had hid her old one so she could call him. After all, her parents checked the phone records of her new number, and not her old one. He opened the text and read, "I read your poem. We need to talk… in person. I will try to sneak out around nine tonight. Where should we meet up?". When Ezra read that, he was so happy he got tears in his eyes. Aria was slowly remembering who he was and everything was going to be okay, he honestly believed that. Ezra's hand trembled a bit as he texted her back saying, "I will pick you up around the corner of your house. I don't want you to walk the streets alone at night. We can go wherever you want to go from there. Sounds like a plan?". A minute later he got a message back from Aria saying, "ok". Ezra felt a bit down when he read that. Just ok? That sounded kind of cold, maybe she didn't remember him as much as he thought she had…

As Aria pressed send, she felt kind of nauseous to her stomach. She didn't know what she was thinking, texting this guy to meet up with him. What if he really was a bad guy? Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all? Aria waited for him to reply and it seemed like forever, but then she got a text back from him. He would pick her up because he didn't want her to walk on the streets alone at night, how could this be a bad guy? He obviously didn't want her to get hurt, so there's no way he would hurt her, right? Suddenly Aria heard someone come up the stairs, she quickly typed in "ok" and pressed send. Then she quickly put everything back and hurried over to her desk. She went to sit at her desk and opened one of the books on a random page in front of her. Suddenly her dad walked in. Aria looked up from her book and said, "Hey dad! How come you're home so early?". Byron smiled at his daughter and said, "I came home early to see how you were doing. Ella called me when you guys were at the hospital. Are you feeling better now?". Aria nodded and replied, "A bit. I still feel a bit weak and tired, but I'll be fine". Byron looked at his daughter with a worried look and said, "Maybe you should get some sleep then, instead of reading? Give your mind a break?". Aria nodded, closed her book and said, "Yeah, that might a good idea. I'll think I'll go do that now". Byron nodded and said, "Okay sweetie, have a nice nap". And then he left her room. Aria sighed in relief that he was gone, she was too afraid that he would notice she knew something was up. Aria got up from behind her desk and walked over to her bed. She laid herself down onto it and sighed as she closed her eyes. She really did need to rest up, after all, tonight at nine, she was going to meet up with Ezra.

After dinner, Aria told her parents that she was going up to her room to read and then get an early night. Aria went up to her bedroom and picked up one of the books lying on her desk and laid herself down onto the bed. She sighed and opened up the book, she started reading but she couldn't even get through the first sentence. Her mind kept wandering off to her rendezvous tonight. She had no clue what was going to happen, how he was going to react, how she was going to react…she felt unbelievably nervous about it all. She also didn't really know how she was going to sneak out of the house, she didn't really think this through. Her plan had been to sneak out through the front door when her parents were in the kitchen or up in their room, but what if they weren't in either of those places. If her parents decided to stay in the dining room, or if they were going to be in the living room, then sneaking out the front door wasn't an option anymore, then she would get caught. The next time she looked at her clock, it was time to go. Aria walked over to the mirror, looked at herself and said, "Alright, let's do this", to herself trying to talk herself into this. She really hoped this was going to be worth it.

Downstairs, Ella and Byron were sitting in the dining room, talking to each other about their daughter. The conversation had started when Ella had noticed that her husband was deep into thought. She had asked him what was wrong, and he had replied with, "I don't know for sure, but I think something is up with Aria. She's been acting different around me since last night, do you think she's starting to remember? That Ezra's visit might have triggered her memory somehow?". Ella shook her head and said, "I don't think so. I haven't noticed any changes in behavior, other than that she's a bit more quiet, but that's probably from the pain". Byron nodded and said, "Could be… I really hope I'm worrying myself over nothing, because the last thing I want is for her to remember. I don't think I could handle losing her a second time". Ella put her hand on top of Byron's and said, "Don't worry, I'm sure it's nothing".

Aria snuck out of her room really quietly and walked into the hallway. She walked over to the stairs as she heard that her parents were talking to each other in the dining room. There was no way she would be able to sneak out through the front door without them noticing it. Aria leaned against the wall and sighed. She looked in the direction of Mike's room. Suddenly she remembered Mike leading her into his room to escape through his window. She remembered him saying something about the look on their dad's face and that he figured that it was better him than dad. Aria was very confused by that, what did that mean? But as confused as she was, she would just have to deal with that later, right now she had to meet up with Ezra. She snuck off to Mike's room and escaped through the window. She made sure she made absolutely no noise to alert her parents, even when she was already out of the house. Aria walked down the street, looking behind her several times to make sure her parents weren't right behind her. Then Aria turned the corner, she wondered if Ezra was already there.

Ezra was sitting in his car, parked around the corner of Aria's house. He was way too early, but he didn't care because he was going to see Aria again. He was excited and nervous at the same time, which was the reason for his earliness. Well, that and the fact that he didn't want Aria to wait for him out on the street. Ezra's eyes were fixated on the rear view mirror in front of him the whole time he was waiting. A bit after nine, he saw someone turn around the corner. He couldn't help but smile as he saw it was Aria. Ezra started the car so she would know which car was his. Then he leaned towards the passenger's door and flung it open.

As Aria turned the corner, she heard one of the parked cars start. She saw that one of the cars' lights turned on. Aria swallowed hard, her heart beating rapidly in her chest. As she started making her way towards the car, she suddenly saw that the passenger's door flung open. All of a sudden Aria saw herself running towards a car in the rain and then she got in it. Another memory, was it Ezra's car she had gotten into that time too? Her head hurt, but it hurt less than the other times, maybe it would get easier from now on? She ran towards the car and got in it.

As Aria got in the car, Ezra looked into her eyes and smiled. Aria had a very serious look on her face and got down the business immediately as she asked, "Have we done this before?". Ezra returned her serious look and said, "Yes, we have done this before". Aria nodded, clearly thinking to herself. Aria looked him into his eyes and asked, "How many times are we talking here?". Ezra was a bit disappointed, she didn't really remember him at all, but he pulled himself together and replied, "Quite a few times. I remember the first time you got into my car like it was yesterday. You were walking in the rain and I drove past. I stopped to let you in". Ezra smiled to himself as he thought back to that moment. Aria looked at him, waiting for him to continue. When he didn't, she asked, "And the other times?". Ezra snapped out of it and continued, "The other times were more like this. You sneaking out of the house and me picking you up somewhere so we could see each other". Aria turned her gaze outside of the window as she asked, "why?". Ezra sighed sadly and said, "Because your parents didn't approve of us. They tried to stop us from seeing each other. Just like they are doing that, right now". Aria placed her hand over her forehead and eyes, she sighed as she whispered to herself, "I can't believe this". Aria turned back to Ezra and said, "Do you mind if we start driving around? I don't feel comfortable being here, so close to my house. I feel like my parents are going to show up here any second". Ezra nodded and said, "Sure. Where do you want to go?". Aria shrugged as she shook her head and said, "I don't know". Then Ezra suggested they just drive around and talk, and if she wanted to stop somewhere, she should just say so. Aria nodded and they took off.

Ezra and Aria were driving around Rosewood now. It was quiet in the car for the first couple of minutes. Then all of a sudden, Aria asked him a question, "How did… this… start?". Ezra smiled sweetly, thinking back to the first time they met. He said, "We met in a bar, the day you got back to Rosewood from Iceland, the day before school started. I was sitting there, at the bar, when all of a sudden you walked in and I remember myself thinking how beautiful you were. When I finally got up the nerve to talk to you, we clicked. I had requested a song on the jukebox, and you said you loved the song when it came on. I told you it was number B-26. I told you that I wanted to know more about you, and you replied that you wanted to know more about me too. And a bit later, we made-out in the bathroom". Aria's eyes widened at that last sentence. With a shocked expression on her face, Aria said, "We made out in a public bathroom of a bar! No… that doesn't sound like me at all". Ezra let out a light chuckle, "Well, sorry, but it's true. Maybe it was all of the alcohol that had gone to our heads?". Aria looked shocked again and asked, "I was drinking alcohol!". Ezra let out another chuckle and replied, "Yes, you were".

Aria looked at Ezra suspiciously, trying to figure out if he was lying or not. But then again, she did have a dream about being in a bar last night. She had been in that exact bar today, and she did remember something he just said while she was there. Aria sighed sadly and said, "It's really hard on me to hear all these stories and not being able to remember them. Especially because I can't even imagine myself doing those things, because it's not me. The person you're describing, it isn't me. I would never do those things". After those words came out, she started freaking out a bit. She felt like she couldn't breathe, why was this happening to her, why couldn't she remember these things already? How had she become such a different person? Ezra looked at Aria, realized something was wrong and immediately pulled over the car. He turned to Aria, leaned in closer, put his hand on her arm and started comforting her. Ezra said, "Aria, it's okay, just calm down. Everything is going to be okay, you're going to remember. I'm sure of it". But it wasn't working, Aria wasn't calming down. With his hand, Ezra turned Aria's face towards his, looked her in the eyes and said, "Look at me, Aria. You're going to be fine, okay? Just look at me, just breathe in and breathe out slowly". Aria looked into his eyes and she did what he told her to do. In under a minute, Aria's breathing was back to normal.

Aria looked at the man in front of her, she looked into his eyes, such amazing kind eyes. He was so close to her, still touching her, he smelled really good. There was a pain in her chest, she had never experienced this feeling before. Or maybe she had, but she just couldn't remember. She wanted to touch him. She caught herself wondering what it would be like to kiss him, how he tasted. What was she thinking? She didn't even know this man! Sure, she might have known him once, but she knew absolutely nothing about him now. But if she was in love with this man before, she would probably fall in love with him again, right? Then again, she wasn't the person he fell in love with anymore. So maybe he wouldn't like her anymore, or maybe she wouldn't like him anymore, or maybe both? They still hadn't moved, still looking into each other's eyes. Then they lost eye contact for a second as Aria caught Ezra looking at her lips. Was he going to try and kiss her?

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><p><strong>So is he? Let me know what you think by reviewing! ;)<strong>


	6. Falling in love again

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pretty Little Liars

Happy reading!

* * *

><p>Ezra and Aria were looking into each other's eyes. Their faces so close together. It had been forever since he had touched her and it felt so good to touch her again, even if it was just his hand on her arm. Ezra could see something in Aria's eyes, he saw longing. Or maybe that was what he wanted to see? After all, it had been so long since he had last kissed her. He really wanted to kiss her, so badly. Ezra broke eye contact and looked at her lips. Should he lean in for a kiss or not? He had no clue on what to do. When he had hugged her in the bookstore the other day, she hadn't liked that one bit… but that was when she didn't know who he was. But now… Aria knew he was her boyfriend, she knew her parents had lied about him, so why not kiss her?<p>

Aria saw Ezra looking at her lips, then she saw him leaning in closer to her face. Oh boy, he was going to kiss her. Aria didn't really know what to do here. On one hand she didn't really know who this man was, but she had remembered things about him, so she knew they had been in love. Aria started thinking to herself, "What if this kiss makes me remember him, us, again? Or maybe it will bring back some part of my memory? But what if I remember bad things? Those are the only memories I've been told by my parents.". Fear got the upper hand as Ezra was about to touch her lips and Aria turned her head to the side. Ezra moved backwards again, as Aria turned her head back to face him and she could see the hurt and disappointment in his eyes.

As Ezra leaned in for a kiss, he saw Aria turn her head the last second. So she wasn't ready yet. As hurt and disappointed as Ezra was, he realized that he had made a terrible mistake by trying to kiss her and he said, looking deep into her eyes, "I'm so sorry Aria, I … I wasn't thinking. I shouldn't have tried to kiss you. I feel so stupid now. Please forgive me?". Ezra was startled as Aria suddenly grabbed her head in pain. Aria remembered sitting in a car with Ezra, who was asking her for forgiveness. She remembered lunging at his mouth to kiss him. Then the pain started subsiding slowly.

As the pain slowly went away, she could hear Ezra's voice in the distance, his voice getting closer and closer. Aria heard Ezra asking her if she was alright, asking her what was wrong. She could also feel Ezra rubbing her back as he was asking her those things. Aria turned to look at him, and Ezra could see the pain in her eyes. He couldn't handle seeing that, it killed him on the inside that he couldn't take away her pain. Ezra asked her, with a confused look, "What just happened?". Aria sighed and said, "Ever since you threw that piece of paper through my window, I've been remembering things about you, about us. The only problem is that remembering is stressing out my brain, and it's causing these pains every time I remember something. But it can't be a coincidence that you're the only one that triggers my memory. It has got to mean something… I need to do something, try something…".

Ezra looked at Aria with worried eyes, feeling a bit guilty. Here he was hoping he would be able to make her remember him, but all he did was cause her pain every time she did remember something. Ezra nodded as he heard Aria say she needed to do something, he would do anything to help her. Just as he was about to ask her what he could help her with, before Ezra even had the chance to utter a single word, Aria kissed him. But about ten seconds into their kiss, Aria had to pull away in pain. She had remembered kissing Ezra in a car, but that was it. Ezra asked Aria, "Are you okay?". Aria seemed upset as she replied, "I'll be fine". Ezra was confused, why was she acting so cold all of a sudden, if she had just kissed him? Ezra asked worried, "Are you sure?". Aria nodded and said, "Yes. You can start driving again now". Ezra nodded and they continued their drive through Rosewood.

After driving around for a while, Ezra couldn't handle the silence anymore. She was obviously upset about something. Did she remember their last fight or something? Ezra said, "Look, I can see you're upset. After all these years, I know that look. So could you please tell me what's upsetting you? Maybe I can help?". Aria sighed sadly and with a bit of tears forming in her eyes, she replied, "I thought kissing you would trigger my memory, ALL of my memory". Ezra saw the tears forming in her eyes and jokingly said, "I'm a good kisser, but I'm not THAT good", trying to cheer her up. Aria laughed, rubbed the tears out of her eyes and said playfully, "Well, that's not what I remember. You're… pretty great". Ezra chuckled and turned to look at her, he loved seeing a smile on her face. He turned his eyes back to the road and said, "It'll all come to you again, just give it time". Aria sighed a bit annoyed and replied, "I don't want to give it time, I want to remember now". She turned her entire body to face Ezra, put one of her hands on his arms and continued, "If what we have is real… If we've been in love for years, then I want to remember already. I want to remember all we had and how we felt. I just want to love you again, the way I did before". Ezra was surprised to hear this, but he was very happy to hear this. Ezra smiled and suggested, "I might be able to help you with that? If you feel up to it, we can drive to our apartment? All of your stuff is there and most of our memories were created there. It's bound to trigger your memory about us, about your life".

Even though she had remembered quite some things about him being in her life, Aria looked at him with hesitation. Ezra saw the look on her face and said, "I know it's hard, but you're going to have to trust me on this one". Suddenly Aria got a stab of pain to the head again. She remembered Ezra asking her if she still trusted him. After telling him she did, he told her they had to do something that afternoon. Ezra brought the car to a halt immediately, he turned to her and asked, "Are you okay? What did you remember?". Aria rubbed her forehead and replied, "You asked me if I still trusted you. You wanted us to do something that afternoon. What did we do that afternoon?".

Ezra nodded as Aria said those things, remembering the moment she was referring to. Ezra said, "We went to your parents' house that afternoon. And we told them that we were in love with each other". Aria nodded and said, half-joking half-serious, "I'm guessing my parents didn't take it so well?". Ezra chuckled and said, "No, no they didn't. And not just your parents. Your brother even punched me in the face". Aria shook her head and explained, "Oh, no. Mike only hit you so my dad wouldn't. He figured that he wouldn't hit you as hard as my dad would have. It was his way of supporting us". Ezra looked at her in wonderment and asked, "What makes you think that?". Aria suddenly realized that this was what she had remembered earlier. She said, "I remember Mike telling me this". Ezra smiled and said, "Seems like I'm not the only trigger". Aria sighed sadly and replied, "Yeah, but unfortunately he can't help me through this. I still can't believe he's gone. It's bad enough that he's not here, but knowing that I can't even remember our last years, our last moments together…". Ezra placed his hand on her arm and said, "You're going to remember". Aria smiled at Ezra as she nodded. Suddenly Aria said, "Alright, let's do it. Let's go to your, our, apartment". Ezra nodded with a smile on his face and started driving again.

Ezra parked his car and they both got out of it. Ezra opened the door for her and told him that their apartment was on the third floor. When they got to the third floor, Aria walked down the hall in front of Ezra. Aria was looking around, taking everything in, when all of a sudden she stopped and turned around to face Ezra. Ezra looked at her in wonderment again and asked, "Why did you stop here?". Aria looked at him like she was stating the obvious when she said, "So you can unlock the door and let us in", as she pointed to an apartment door. Ezra smirked and said, "Alright, smartass, I mean, why did you stop at this specific door, why 3B?". Aria shrugged and said, "I don't know. I felt drawn to it, I guess. Why, am I wrong? I'm wrong, aren't I?". Ezra handed her the key and said, "Go ahead and see for yourself". Aria took the key from Ezra and slowly put it into the keyhole and turned it."Oh my god, it worked. I was right!", she said excited with a big smile on her face. Ezra smiled back and said, "Come on, let's go inside".

Aria walked in, with Ezra following her. Ezra closed the door as he heard Aria gasp and say, "The typewriter, the take-out boxes, the books". Ezra looked kind of embarrassed and said, "Yeah, don't mind the take-out boxes. I'm really sorry for the mess". Aria giggled and said, "That's not what I meant. I know this place. I saw it in my dream last night". Aria looked around and spotted the paper bag masks on top of the bookcase. Aria laughed to herself. Ezra looked at her curiously and asked, "What's so funny?". Aria turned to him with a smile on her face and said, "Taking a picture with paper bag masks on". Ezra's face lightened up and said, "That was your goofy idea". Aria looked around again and noticed all the pictures of them together. There was a picture of them picnicking, one of them with the Eiffel tower in the background, one of them at the Trevi fountain and then just one of them snuggling on the couch together. Aria couldn't believe what she was seeing. Ezra saw her looking at their pictures and said, "We went to Europe together two summers ago". Aria was clearly in awe and responded, "Yeah, I can see that", as she continued to slowly take in everything she saw in the apartment.

Aria walked over to the bedroom, went over to the closet and opened it. "Oh my god! My clothes!", Aria said excited. Ezra laughed so hard at that, that was so typical Aria. Ezra felt so good and happy right now, it felt like Aria was returning to him bit by bit. Aria looked over at Ezra, she loved his laugh, she loved his smile. She walked over to Ezra and said, "Thank you". Ezra looked at her questioningly and asked, "For what?". Aria smiled and replied, "For not giving up on me. For bringing me here". Ezra smiled and caressed her cheek. Aria whimpered softly as he touched her, she felt that weird pain in her chest again. Aria grabbed her chest, where her heart was and said, "My heart… it aches". Ezra looked deep into Aria's eyes and replied, "I think I can help with that". He leaned forward and kissed Aria softly on the lips. Aria moaned softly, wrapped her arms around his neck and started kissing him back fiercely. Suddenly Aria started feeling lightheaded and dizzy. She stopped kissing Ezra and she almost fell over, but Ezra caught her.

Ezra carried Aria over to his bed and put her down. He went to sit next to her and said, "Are you okay? I think we might have overdone it. Best you get some rest now, tomorrow is another day", as he stroked her hair. Aria shook her head and responded, "No, I don't want to stop now, it's working". Ezra looked at her with a stern look and said, "No, you're going to sleep right now. You need your rest". Aria wanted to say something but she knew she wasn't going to win this argument. She playfully said as she saluted, "Sir, yes sir!". Ezra jokingly rolled his eyes at that and Aria walked over to her pajama drawer. After she picked one out, she walked over to the bathroom and got ready to go to bed. This all felt so familiar, this routine, this place, it felt good.

When Aria walked out of the bathroom she saw Ezra making up the couch. As Aria walked over to him, she asked, "What are you doing?". Ezra fluffed up a pillow and replied, "I'm making up the couch. I'll sleep here, you can take the bed". Aria smiled sweetly as she zoned out a bit staring at Ezra as he continued. He was so sweet to her. What he was doing now, was so cute and considerate. Aria stopped Ezra from what he was doing and said, "You don't have to sleep on the couch". Ezra turned to Aria and looked at her with a questioning look as to ask "why not?". Aria took Ezra's hands in hers and said, "I may not remember everything about you, but I remember enough and I trust you. And apparently you're the only person I can trust right now, seeing as how my parents lied to me about almost everything. I'm confused, hurt and lost and I don't feel like being alone right now. So all I really want and need right now is for you to lie next to me and just hold me". Ezra took Aria into his arms, her head resting on his chest. Aria could hear and feel his heart beat, and how it seemed to beat faster and louder as he stroked her hair and kissed her on the forehead.

After getting ready to go to bed, they got under the covers together and Ezra took Aria into his arms. Aria couldn't remember the last time she had felt so relaxed and at ease. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep because of that.

Back at the Montgomery's house, Byron and Ella were watching a movie together. After it ended they headed upstairs to go to bed. Byron looked at Aria's closed door and said, "We haven't seen her since dinner. You think she's okay? Maybe I should go check on her?". Ella took his hand in hers and pulled him with her to the bedroom while saying, "I'm sure she's fine. She's fast asleep by now, you'll only wake her up". Byron nodded and followed his wife into the bedroom.

The next morning Byron woke up and walked over to the bathroom to take a shower. After that, he walked down the hallway to go downstairs, when he noticed Mike's bedroom door wasn't fully closed. He looked confused and opened the door completely and looked around the room. Byron noticed that one of Mike's windows was open. Ella was on her way to the bathroom as she spotted her husband in front of Mike's room. Ella looked at her husband questioningly and asked, "What's going on?". Ella didn't get a reply from him, but she could see he was deep into thought. She saw his face go from confused to upset, and from upset to angry, as he turned around and barged into Aria's room. His suspicions were confirmed as he saw an empty bed. Ella walked into Aria's room and asked her husband again, "What is going on here?". Byron turned to Ella and said, "Can't you see what's going on here! Aria is gone! She snuck out of the house!". Ella looked at her husband in disbelief and said, "What! I don't believe that". Byron pointed towards Mike's bedroom as he replied, "Then why was Mike's bedroom door open? Not to mention one of his windows?". Ella didn't know what to say to that, did her daughter really sneak out of the house? Why? And most important of all, where to?

Byron rushed over to their bedroom with Ella following him. He picked up the phone and said, "I'm calling the police". Ella took the phone from him and said, "And say what? That our daughter who's 22 years old snuck out of our house!". Byron sighed in frustration, shook his head and said, "You know, this is all your fault!". Ella looked at him like she couldn't believe what she was hearing and said, "Excuse me!". Byron replied, "If you hadn't taken her out, then she would have never bumped into Ezra! I bet that's where she is right now!". Ella responded angrily, "None of this wouldn't even be happening if it weren't for your stupid plan! We had the chance to help our daughter get her memory back and maybe that way earn a place in her life again. But no, you had to turn this into some stupid personal vendetta against Ezra and hurt our daughter in the process. I can't believe I actually agreed to help you with this, I should have known that this would only end badly. You know, Aria might not have been in our lives, but at least she was happy. I don't know what I was thinking when you talked me into doing this! I don't even know why you thought of this plan! why did you even think for a second that this would be a good idea!".

"Yeah, I'd like to know that too…". Ella and Byron were startled when they heard that. They looked over at the door and saw Aria standing there, clearly upset with them.

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><p><strong>Uh-oh! What do you think is going to happen now?<br>Hope you liked chapter 6! Please review to tell me what you think! **


	7. The confrontation

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pretty Little Liars

**Author's note:** I'm REALLY REALLY sorry for the late update! But I've been going through some tough times (health wise, family problems) and I haven't really had the energy or inspiration to write. But here's chapter 7, I hope you enjoy!

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><p>As Aria slowly woke up she felt Ezra's arms around her, she couldn't recall ever feeling so safe. Her head was resting on his chest, so she moved back a little to see if he was still asleep. When she looked at him, he looked so peaceful…so happy…so handsome. She must have been staring at him for like half an hour, totally lost in everything that he was, when he woke up and saw her looking at him. Ezra gave her a big smile and said, "Hey beautiful", and then proceeded to kiss her softly on her forehead. Aria smiled back and said, "Hey handsome", and kissed him softly on his lips. Ezra stroked a loose strand of hair out of Aria's face and then stroked her cheek as he asked her, "Did you sleep okay?" Aria nodded and answered, "I can't remember the last time I've ever slept this well." "Literally", she added in a self-mocking way. Ezra chuckled and said, "You have no idea how much I've missed this, waking up next to you. I don't ever want to lose you again." Aria smiled, touched his cheek with her hand and said, "You won't." Ezra smiled and Aria leaned forward to kiss him. He kissed her back passionately and then moved down to kiss her neck. As he did this, he took her hand in his and their fingers intertwined. Aria moaned half in pleasure, half in pain as she remembered sleeping with Ezra. Ezra looked at Aria with a puzzled look on his face and jokingly asked, "I'm guessing you remembered something good?" Aria giggled and replied, "Guess I'm no longer a virgin", and they both burst into laughter.<p>

After laying in bed kissing and cuddling for a while, they decided to eat some breakfast. After breakfast, Aria asked, "Do you mind if I take a look at some things?" Ezra shook his head and replied, "No, of course not! I mean, they're your things too." Aria smiled and said, "Okay, thanks", and then walked over to the desk. On the desk were two laptops. One was a dark blue, the other was a neon pink one. Aria took the neon pink one in her hands and jokingly asked, "I'm guessing, or rather hoping, that this is mine?" Ezra laughed and replied, "Yes, that's your laptop." Aria walked over to the couch, sat down, placed the laptop on her lap and started it up. Ezra said, "I'm going to go take a shower, unless you need me for something?" Aria turned to Ezra and replied, "No, I'm good here", and then turned back to her laptop.

Once her laptop was started up properly, she checked all the different folders hoping she would find things that would help her remember. She had found a folder with older pictures, from when she was a little child till graduation. Pictures of her with her parents, her brother, her friends and occasionally one of her and Ezra. Then she looked at another folder with pictures, but these were more recent ones. Pictures of her and Ezra and only of her and Ezra. There were no pictures of her with anyone else. No wonder he was the only one who could trigger her memory, seeing as he's the only person tied to them.

Ezra walked out of the bathroom, still slightly wet and with nothing but a towel tied around his waist. He walked over to the couch and as he came into Aria's sight, her mouth dropped open. She couldn't help but stare at his toned abs that were now glistening because of the water drops. She started thinking about the two of them in the shower. Ezra smirked and took a seat next to her, which made Aria snap out of her daydream. "So, have you found anything useful yet?", Ezra asked. Aria shook her head and replied, "Not really. I went through some pictures, but none that jogged my memory." Ezra gave her a reassuring smile and said, "Don't worry, It'll come to you eventually."Aria smiled back at him and said, "You're right."

Ezra looked at Aria's screen and saw a minimalized picture at the bottom of the screen. He pointed at it and asked, "What's that?" Aria clicked on it and it popped open bigger on the screen. It was a picture of her parents, Mike and her. Ezra saw the sad look in Aria's eyes and asked, "Are you okay?" Aria shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I don't know." Aria sighed and continued, "We look so happy in that picture. We actually look like a family there. And now… Now I don't even know who those people are." Ezra took Aria's hand in his and said, "They're still your parents." Aria rolled her eyes and said, "Well, they sure haven't acted like parents. To lie to me that way… And I don't know how to feel about it all. At one point, I'm mad at them. But at the same time I can't help but hope this is all just some big misunderstanding and that my parents aren't such horrible people." Ezra nodded understandingly and suggested, "Well, maybe you should go talk to them?" Aria nodded and replied, "Yeah, you're probably right. Not to mention they'll soon realize I'm nowhere to be found. So I'm pretty sure they'll know something is up." Ezra gave Aria a reassuring smile and said, "Alright then. Why don't you go take a shower and get ready? And then we'll go over to your parent's house?" Aria agreed and walked over to the bathroom to take a shower. After both of them were ready, they got in the car and drove over to the Montgomery's house.

When they got to the house, Ezra parked the car. Ezra saw that Aria was hesitant about getting out of the car, like she had changed her mind and wanted to run away. Ezra put his hand on Aria's hand and said, "Don't worry. I'll be with you every step of the way." Aria relaxed and smiled, then they both got out of the car. As they walked over to the door, Ezra moved his hand to hold hers and gave it a little squeeze to let her know that he was still here with her. When they got inside, they looked for her parents, but they didn't see them. Then they heard her parents, talking loudly at each other. It was coming from upstairs. Aria turned to Ezra and said, "Wait here. I'll go check." Ezra looked a bit worried and asked, "You sure you don't want me to come with you?" Aria replied, "No, it's okay. I've got this." Ezra nodded and Aria made her way up the stairs.

She heard that the voices were coming from her parent's bedroom. Aria walked over to it and stood in the doorframe, overhearing a part of their conversation. Aria was getting pretty upset at what she was hearing. She stood there until she couldn't stand to hear any more and said, "Yeah, I'd like to know that too…"

Ella and Byron were startled when they heard their daughter's voice. How much of the conversation had she overheard? Ella walked over to her daughter and said, "Aria, honey. We can explain." Byron stopped his wife, turned to Aria and in a demanding yet angry tone of voice he asked, "Young lady, where have you been?" Aria turned to her father and said, "Oh no, don't you dare think for even one second that you can turn this around on me. You're the one who lied to me. Both of you lied to me. You deliberately did everything you could so I wouldn't remember anything… Why? What did I do to make you treat me this way?" Ella walked over to her daughter and wanted to put her hand on Aria's shoulder to comfort her, but Aria pulled away and said, "Don't touch me." Ella looked hurt and took a step back. It was then that she took a good look at her daughter and noticed something. She asked, "Your clothes… I've never seen those before. Where did you get those?" Aria looked a bit guilty and before she could say anything, Byron said angrily, "You spent the night at his place, didn't you! I don't believe you, you don't even remember him!". Aria shook her head and responded, "But I do remember him! Maybe not everything…but I know enough. Enough to know that me and him have been in love for years. Oh…And I didn't spend the night at HIS place. I spent the night at OUR place." Byron looked absolutely mortified as he heard his daughter say those last words. OUR place… This wasn't going the way he had planned at all.

Aria saw the look on her father's face and continued, "Look, I know you might not like him… But that's no reason to lie about his existence or make up horrible lies about him! I'm suffering from memory loss, and you sabotaged my recovery! Because you don't like my boyfriend! I mean, doesn't that just sound ridiculous to you? And wrong? Not to mention, I absolutely do not get why you don't like him. He loves me, he treats me right, and apparently he's the only one with my best interest at heart." Byron snapped and replied, "I have every right not to like that man! He took advantage of my daughter when she was just sixteen years old! He destroyed our family!" Aria was annoyed by his comment and said, "He didn't take advantage of me! Jeez, this is so frustrating! I can't take this anymore…I'm leaving." As Aria turned around to leave and went down the stairs, her parents started following her.

When Aria got at the bottom of the stairs, Ezra walked up to her and asked, "Are you alright?" Aria ignored his question and said, "I don't want to be here anymore. Let's just go." Ezra nodded and they both headed for the front door. All of a sudden they heard Byron yell angrily, "You!" Ezra turned around and saw a seemingly furious Byron coming towards him. Byron tried to punch Ezra in the face, but he was able to dodge it. Aria screamed, "Dad! No!", and Ella pulled back Byron by the arm to get him to back off. Seeing this triggered Aria's memory as she remembered Mike punching Ezra, and because of that she started cringing in pain. Ezra, Byron and Ella rushed to Aria's side to make sure she was okay. Byron gave Ezra a mean look and said, "You need to back off." Ezra gave Byron a defiant look in return and answered him, "I will do no such thing."

Byron let out a grunt and replied, "I'm serious, Fitz. You need to leave…Right now!" Ezra stood his ground and said, "I'm serious too. I love your daughter and she loves me. Whether you like it or not. And I will not leave her side for a second." Byron scoffed and answered, "Well, it seems to me like you had no problem leaving her side when she ran out on you after your fight, and she proceeded to drive off in her car when it was storming like crazy outside!" Ezra tried to speak, but he couldn't get any words out, he didn't know what to say to that. He looked at Aria, who was staring back at him questioningly. She asked, "What fight?" Ezra sighed and explained, "The night of your accident, we were arguing about something. You were mad at me and you left. You got into your car and you drove off." Aria nodded repeatedly to herself as she was putting the pieces of the puzzle together, and started talking, "And then I crashed it…so I wasn't coming back home from the college dorms…of course I wasn't, what am I saying? I wasn't even staying in the college dorms. Just another lie, courtesy of mom and dad." Aria turned to her parents and continued, "Do you have any idea what you've done to me? You've filled my head with lies, and now…I can't even tell what's real and what's not real. It's so confusing!"

Ella had guilt written all over her face. Byron on the other hand started defending himself, "Well, we might have told you some lies…But they were only for your own good! And it's not like he's been telling you the whole truth either, now has he? Conveniently not telling you that you had a fight the night of your accident, that you ran out on him…" Ezra immediately started explaining himself, "Whoa, hold it right there! I wasn't hiding anything from her. We just haven't had the time to talk about everything yet. Plus, it's best that she remembers it on her own, than that I tell her." Byron scoffed and replied, "You have no clue what's best for my daughter! Otherwise you would have been out of her life a long time ago!" Ezra was clearly getting annoyed and said, "Like you've been acting in her best interest? I'm pretty sure that feeding her lies and doing everything to make sure she doesn't get her memory back, isn't in her best interest!" Byron replied angrily, "I have been acting in my daughter's best interest since the day she was born! You should have just stayed away! If you hadn't even bumped into her at that bookstore, you wouldn't have even known she had that accident!" Ezra couldn't believe what he was hearing and yelled, "Because you didn't tell me about it!" Byron shook his head angrily and said, "No, because you didn't even bother going after her in the first place! It should have been you in that car, not her!" Aria couldn't believe that her father had just said that and yelled, "Dad! No! Don't say that! It's not true!"

After a long silence Ezra looked at Aria and he said, with a sad tone in voice, "No, he's right. It should have been me. I didn't go after you…It's my fault, all of it." Aria shook her head frantically and said, "No…No, it's not." Byron came between them and said, "You don't know that! You ran out on him for a reason that night! You were going to leave him!" Aria started getting tears in her eyes and replied, "I would never leave him!" Byron asked, "Really? Then why did you take off that night? In that kind of weather?" Aria didn't know what to say to that. She looked at Ezra, then looked at her father and replied, "I don't know." Byron said, "Well, maybe you should try and remember THAT, instead of standing here defending him." Aria raised her voice and answered, "I will always defend him! I love him!" Byron sighed, shook his head in disappointment and asked, "How do you know that? You don't know what was going on inside your head before you had that accident. Who says you still loved him?"

Ezra saw a bit of doubt in Aria's eyes, but she quickly snapped out of it and said, "No… I loved him. I still do!" Byron tried to convince his daughter even more, "Really? Who says you didn't break up with him and he's just taking advantage of the situation because you don't remember?" Ezra couldn't take it anymore and said, "Are you kidding me? Why would I do that? I think you're confusing me with yourself." Aria nodded in agreement and said, "Ezra would never do that." Byron raised his eyebrows and asked, "Are you sure about that? I mean, he didn't tell you about your fight, about you running out on him. Why do you think that is? It wasn't because he wanted to spare you, or let you remember it on your own. He probably had no problem telling you all the good and nice things he's done for you. Don't think we've been the only ones trying to manipulate you. He's just as guilty."

Aria looked a bit shocked after hearing this. Could this be true? No, Ezra would never do that. Right? Sure, he hadn't told her about their fight, but he probably just didn't want to upset her. She looked at Ezra who was looking back at her with an expression she couldn't quite explain. Was it fear? Guilt? Doubt? All of the above? Oh my God, what if it was true? What if it wasn't just her parents that had lied to her. What if Ezra… She couldn't finish that thought, she wouldn't. There's no way he would do that to her, no way. Aria started breathing more rapidly as her mind kept going places she didn't want to go. The thought of Ezra lying to her too really stressed her out. If she couldn't trust her parents, and she couldn't trust Ezra, then who could she trust? Aria yelled, "Stop it! Stop messing with my head! Just stop it!", then she started hyperventilating.

Ezra walked over to Aria and placed his hands on her arms, trying to calm her down, "Aria, it's okay. Just look at me. It's going to be fine." But this time, it wasn't working. Ezra turned to Byron and said angrily, "Do you see what you did!" Byron gave him a mean look and replied, "Me? Who says this isn't your fault! Maybe she finally realized what kind of a man you really are!" Ezra shook his head in frustration and said, "No, you're the one who's been trying to upset her, and congratulations, you did!" Ezra and Byron started arguing even more, yelling at each other, trying to blame the other. Ella tried to stop them, yelling at them to give it a rest. Aria didn't hear a thing of it because it was getting all foggy in her head. All she heard was murmur, until the murmur turned into a high frequency beep. Aria started feeling dizzy and everything went black before her eyes. She didn't have the strength to stand on her legs anymore, so she collapsed on the floor. The last thing she heard was three people yelling "Aria!" at her, before she lost consciousness.

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><p>Alright! That was chapter 7. Hopefully you liked it, please let me know what you thought of it?<p> 


	8. Bad luck

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pretty Little Liars

**Author's note: **I apologize for the shorter chapter, but you'll see why I did that! ;)

Happy reading!

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><p>As Ezra and Byron were arguing, Ella did everything she could to try and stop them. Then all of a sudden they heard a thump. They turned their heads over to where Aria was standing, and then noticed Aria had fallen to the ground. All of them yelled out, "Aria!" and rushed to her side. Ella bent down on her knees, and told Byron and Ezra to stand back, so she could check to see if Aria was okay. Ezra asked, "Is she still breathing?" Ella nodded and said, "Yes, she is." Ella took her hand and felt Aria's forehead and said, "It doesn't seem like she has a fever." She looked accusingly into Ezra and Byron's direction, as she continued, "So I'm assuming she fainted because a certain two people were fighting and it was too much for her to handle." Ezra looked genuinely sorry, Byron on the other hand just rolled his eyes. Ella suggested, "I think it might be best if we move her to the couch." Both Ezra and Byron moved forward and bent down to pick her up. Their eyes met and they stared at each other, not looking away as to defy each other. Byron let out a growl, but then he stepped back. Ezra gently picked up Aria, making sure he carried her just right, so her head was being supported too. Ezra carried her over to the couch and gently laid her down on it. Then he bent down next to her and stroked some strands of hair out of her face. He leaned closer to give her a kiss on the forehead and then he said, "You're going to be okay." Ella and Byron watched him from where Aria had fallen down and then they looked at each other. Ella's eyes betrayed that she felt guilty, Byron's look gave nothing away.<p>

Ella and Byron walked over to them and Ezra got back up when he noticed them getting closer. He turned to them and looked at them, waiting for them to say something. After some silence, Byron broke it by saying, "Okay, you can go now." Ezra's eyebrows raised in disbelief and then said, "Oh, I'm not going anywhere. There's no way I'm leaving her alone with you." Byron gave him a smug look and replied, "This is my house. My house, my rules. I say you go, you go. Or…I can always call the police." Ezra returned his smug look and said, "Go ahead. Call them." Ella couldn't stand the tension between them, turned to her husband and said, "Byron, just let him stay." Byron looked at his wife in surprise and asked, "What! You're on his side now!" Ella sighed and answered, "The only side I'm on right now is Aria's." Byron asked seemingly upset, "Oh, and I'm not?" Ella shook her head and replied, "No Byron. No you are not." Byron angrily said, "You are unbelievable! Are you forgetting that we are in this together?" Ella wanted to reply to that, but then all of a sudden she heard Aria moan in pain.

Aria felt lightheaded as she slowly woke up. She was disoriented and her head was killing her. The fact that she heard people arguing close to her wasn't helping at all. Aria's headache got worse and she let out a moan in pain. All of a sudden, the arguing stopped. Aria look around and saw that Byron, Ella and Ezra were all looking at her, in complete silence. She figured they were waiting for her to speak, so she asked them, "What happened?" Ezra got back down on his knees next to the couch and replied, "You fainted." The only thing that came out of Aria's mouth next was, "Oh." Ella asked, "How are you feeling right now?" Aria looked back at her mother and replied, "I don't know." Byron was agitated by her reply and said, "What do you mean, you don't know? You either feel fine or you don't. Make up your mind for once in your life." Ezra turned to Byron and angrily replied, "Hey! Ease of, will you?" Byron wanted to yell at him, but he didn't because Ella tugged at his shoulder in a way of telling him that he should let it go. Not being able to stay in the same space as Ezra, Byron just left the room.

Ezra stroked Aria's cheek and leaned in and kissed her temple. Ezra told Aria, "We should probably take you to the hospital and get you checked out, just in case." Then Ezra got up, turned to Ella and asked her, "What do you think?" Ella nodded and replied, "Yes. I think that might be best." Aria who was still lying on the couch, tried to move to get herself up. Ezra turned around and helped her to sit up. Suddenly Ezra felt a hand on his left arm, he looked and saw it was Ella, who looked remorseful. Ella looked him straight in the eyes and said, "I'm sorry…for everything that has happened." Ezra gave Ella a faint smile, nodded, and then turned back to Aria. But then as Ella spoke again, he turned his head towards her again, as she continued, "Not just for the past few weeks…for…everything." Ella put emphasis on the word "everything", so he would know what she was talking about. Aria picked up on the change in Ezra's body language. He kind of tensed up as her mother said that last word. His eyes betraying that he felt really uncomfortable.

And Ezra did feel uncomfortable. He knew what Ella was referring to and to be honest…he didn't want to be reminded of that. What she was talking about was something he'd rather forget. Not to mention, if Aria were to ever find out… Aria was getting really suspicious now and asked, "What's going on?" Ezra snapped out of his train of thought and said, "Nothing. Nothing's going on. We should get you to the hospital now. I'll help you up, come on." Ezra held out his hand, but instead of grabbing it, she slapped it away. With an intense look she stared Ezra in the eyes and said, "Tell me what 's going on." Ezra replied, "I just told you. There's nothing going on." Aria let out a huff and said, "Fine! If you don't want to tell me, then I'm out of here!" Aria got up, passed both Ezra and Ella and then she headed for the door. Ezra yelled after her, "Aria! Stop overreacting over nothing. We need to take you to the hospital." Aria turned to him, gave him a mean look and yelled, "I feel perfectly fine!" As Aria opened the door, she saw that it was pouring rain outside. She sighed, but she stepped outside anyway and slammed the door shut behind her.

Ezra sighed and went after her. He sure as hell wasn't going to make the same mistake again by not going after her. He opened the door and saw Aria walking down the driveway in the rain. "Aria! Wait up!", he yelled after her. Aria didn't even look back, she just kept on walking and yelled back, "No! Stop following me!" Still following her, he yelled, "Come back already, it's raining! You can be mad at me AFTER we get you checked out at the hospital!" Aria looked back out of the corner of her eye and saw that Ezra was slowly gaining on her. She sped up her walking a bit, and she just kept walking straight ahead, in the middle of crossing the street. Ezra picked up his pace too as soon as he realized she had picked up hers. He saw her cross the street and his eyes widened as he noticed that there was a car coming towards her. Ezra started running and yelled, "Aria! Look out!" Aria turned her head to the right and saw a car coming towards her. She wanted to run away, but she was unable to move because fear had immobilized her completely. The driver of the car was changing the radio channel, when all of a sudden he heard someone yelling. He looked up and saw that there was a girl on the road, so he hit his brakes as soon as he saw her. Aria saw the car slowing down in speed, but it was still coming towards her at a serious speed because the road was wet due to the rain. She closed her eyes in fear and just like that, she saw her life flash before her eyes. Then Aria felt an impact and she felt herself being lifted up slightly in the air, to fall down onto her side seconds later. As soon as she hit the ground, she heard a crack and an intense shoot of pain in her left arm.

Aria heard screeching tires because the car drove off in a hurry. She slowly opened her eyes and noticed Ezra lying next to her on the ground, with one of his arms around her. So the impact she had felt wasn't the car, it had been Ezra trying to get her out of the way. His head was against the floor and he appeared to be unconscious. Aria panicked seeing Ezra lying there, he looked so lifeless. Aria started shaking Ezra with her right arm, saying, "Ezra! Ezra! Wake up!" Ezra was lying on his side, so she tried to push him onto his back with one arm, since her left arm hurt too much to use. When she got him on his back, she noticed there was blood on the right side of his head. He must have bumped it when they hit the ground. He got hurt trying to safe her. Aria managed to get on her knees, and she lightly tapped Ezra's right cheek a couple of times, "Ezra! Please wake up!" Aria was sobbing so hard she could feel tears streaming down her face, and that's when she noticed that it had stopped raining. She leaned forward and starting kissing Ezra all over his face, between each kiss begging him, "please."

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><p>Oh em gee! What just happened? Is Ezra going to be okay? Is he dead or not?<p>

(And no, if he does wake up, I am NOT giving him memory loss, haha!)


	9. The funeral

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pretty Little Liars

**Author's note:** Also a shorter chapter, but I think I like it better this way. Shorter chapters means updating more quickly. Also, some of the reviews gave me the impression that people didn't get that Aria's memory is back? In the last chapter, when she was about to get hit by that car, her "life flashed before her eyes". That was my way of saying her memory was back, I'm sorry if that wasn't a 100% clear.

In this chapter: _Cursive_ = Flashback

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><p>It was a very sunny day, which Aria didn't really find appropriate since it was also a very sad day. She stood in front of the church, watching people that were all dressed in black go inside. She was wondering whether to go in or not. When she finally persuaded herself to go in, she walked through the doors and into the church. She stopped at the back of the church and scanned the room. She saw that there were a lot of people, which didn't surprise her at all. Her eyes went over to the mahogany coffin, which was adorned with flowers. In the front of the church there were also a lot of funeral wreaths placed here and there. Suddenly her eyes drifted to the front row where she saw Ezra's parents sitting next to each other. Not only were they sitting next to each other, but he had his arm around her and her head was laying on his shoulder. At one point it seemed odd to her, since Ezra's parents were divorced and they didn't end things in a civil way. On the other hand, a day like today tends to make you forget about all those things. Aria couldn't see his mom's face, but she could tell she was sobbing from the way her upper body moved uncontrollably up and down. Aria gazed back at the coffin and wondered how life worked in such a mysterious way. She had escaped death, not once, but twice. Escaping it once, okay. But twice? That was just tempting fate, no?<p>

_Aria was sobbing so hard she could feel tears streaming down her face, and that's when she noticed it had stopped raining. She leaned forward and started kissing Ezra all over his face, between each kiss begging him, "please." As Ezra slowly opened his eyes, he felt someone kissing him all over his face and saying something. He felt tears dripping onto his face too. Suddenly, Aria noticed Ezra's eyes opening and she leaned back again. Once Aria realized that Ezra was really awake she let out a loud cry and dropped her head onto his chest, her arms hugging his sides. Ezra was startled by this and asked, "Are you okay?", wondering if there might be something wrong with her. Aria let go, leaned back a bit, looked him in the eyes and said, "Am I okay? YOU are bleeding!" Ezra ignored her statement and asked, "Are you hurt?" Aria shook her head in annoyance, why was he worrying about her when he was the one who was hurt worse? She said, "I'm fine. But you're not." Ezra gave her a faint smile to reassure her and said, "I'll be fine, don't worry." Ezra touched Aria's left arm with his right hand to try and comfort her, but as soon as he did, she flinched. Ezra looked at her with worry in his eyes and asked, "What was that?" Aria shook her head and replied, "It's nothing." Ezra gave her a stern look and said, "It's not nothing. You flinched." Aria rolled her eyes at his worrying and said, "It's probably just bruised." Ezra gave her that stern look again and said, "We should get it checked out, it might be broken." Aria sighed and said, "Well, you're bleeding. We should get YOU checked out." Suddenly both of them were startled when they heard someone else say, "We should get you both checked out". Aria turned around and saw that it was her mother. Ella continued, "Your dad called an ambulance, they should arrive any moment." And just as Ella predicted, a minute later they heard the sirens of the ambulance getting closer, until it had arrived at its destination. _

_When the ambulance arrived, the paramedics got out and one of them walked over to Aria asking her if she was hurt anywhere. Aria couldn't speak, she was too busy watching the other paramedic attend to Ezra. The paramedic looked at her quizzically and asked, "Ma'am? Are you hurt anywhere?" Aria snapped out of it, looked at the paramedic and replied, "My left arm hurts a lot." The paramedic gently grabbed her arm and examined it, touching her arm in different places to determine where the pain was coming from. Aria's eyes wandered over to Ezra again._

_The other paramedic, that had walked over to Ezra, had asked him some routine questions, and Ezra had tried to answer them as well as he could. Then the paramedic walked back over to the ambulance to get the gurney out. Ezra felt fine and didn't really get what all the fuss was about, it was just a bump on his head. So, to prove he was perfectly fine, he sat up and tried to get himself to stand up. He could just walk over to the ambulance himself. But because he got up too fast, there was a sudden drop of blood pressure, which caused him to black out and Ezra fell back onto the floor again._

_Aria, who was intently watching Ezra, saw Ezra trying to get up. Just as she was about to say something to him, she saw him black out again. Aria panicked, broke loose from the paramedic's grip and ran over to Ezra, yelling "Ezra!" The other paramedic, who had just gotten the gurney out, ran over to Ezra too. He bent over him, took out a little flashlight, lifted his eyelids one by one as he shone into it with the light. Then he asked the other paramedic to help him put Ezra on the gurney and then they rolled the gurney into the ambulance. Aria stood there, not able to move or speak, when the paramedic that had attended to her before walked over and helped her into the ambulance. When the paramedic asked Ella if she would like to come with them to the hospital, Aria suddenly snapped and said, "No! she's not coming with us." Ella was shocked at her daughter's sudden outburst and Aria could see the shock clearly written on her mother's face. Then Aria continued, "I don't want you or dad anywhere near us! Don't even bother coming to the hospital, you're not welcome!" The paramedic clearly felt uncomfortable, but they needed to hurry back to the hospital, so he closed the doors, walked over to the driver's seat, got in and the ambulance drove away. _

Aria was contemplating leaving, she didn't really know if she wanted to be here after all. But then she noticed they were about to start the service, so she took an available seat somewhere in the back. As the service went on, Aria couldn't help but sob. But she did it as silently as she could, because somewhere inside of her she felt she needed to try and be strong. Some parts of the service reminded her of Mike's funeral, which made it harder to fight back her tears. After the service was over, Aria made her way over to the mahogany coffin in the front of the church.

_The ambulance ride seemed to take forever, but in reality it was only a few minutes. Aria was silent and she seemed calm, but on the inside she was freaking out about the fact that Ezra was unconscious again. She sat on the side, watching the paramedic take care of Ezra, who was lying on the gurney in the middle of the ambulance. When they got to the hospital, they rushed Ezra off, but she didn't know where to. She tried to go with him, but they wouldn't let her. One of the nurses took her into a different area to clean up her arm and check her out to see if she was hurt anywhere else. Then someone else took her to get her arm x-rayed, to see if it was broken. All the while she was in a daze, not paying attention to anything in her surroundings, wondering where Ezra was and what they were doing to him right now. Wondering if he was all right. After a while, a doctor came and told her she had broken her elbow. The doctor started talking about surgery and that it was best they did it as soon as possible. The doctor told her that they would be able to do it later in the day, but Aria wasn't paying attention. Aria looked up at the doctor and asked, "How's Ezra doing?" The doctor looked at her confused and asked, "Who?" Aria frowned and replied, "The man that came in with me." The doctor shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, I don't know. He's not one of my patients." _

_Aria just sat there, consumed by her thoughts, which weren't always positive. They had put her into her own room, in a bed, waiting for surgery later today. Every time she saw a nurse, she asked them if they knew how Ezra was doing. But either they didn't know, or if they did, they told her they couldn't tell her because she wasn't family. When the time came for her surgery, they got her and brought her to the operating room. As the anesthesia started working, the last thing on her mind was if she'd ever see Ezra again. _

When she reached the coffin and Ezra's family, she walked over to the man who was standing in front of the coffin, facing it. She put her hand on his right shoulder and said, "I'm so sorry about your brother." The man turned around, surprised by Aria's voice. He stood there, his blue eyes staring into her hazel ones, not knowing what to say to her. She could see the confusion in his eyes as he asked, "Why are you here?" Aria sighed softly and replied, "Why? I came here for you. You were there for me when my brother died, the least I can do is return the favor, Ezra."

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><p>So, on a scale from 1-10, how mean was that chapter? lol Or did you all just see right through me?<p>

But the bigger question is…what happened ?


	10. Moving on

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pretty Little Liars

**Author's note:** I read the reviews and saw A LOT of confusion…people thinking Ezra really died? The funeral in chapter 9 is for Ezra's brother, as you realize at the end of the chapter when she talks to Ezra. But I did try and give the impression in the beginning that it was Ezra's funeral, just to be a really mean writer, lol. In this chapter I'm going to explain what happened between the trip to the hospital and the funeral of Ezra's brother. It's a longer chapter, I was very inspired and just kept on writing! lol

In this chapter: _Cursive_ = Flashback

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><p>Ezra looked at Aria sadly and said, "Don't get me wrong, it's nice seeing you again, but… I don't need you here just because you feel sorry for me or because you feel like you're obligated to be here." Aria let out a heavy sigh and said, "I'm not here because I feel obligated, I'm here because I love you." Ezra raised an eyebrow and asked, "Yeah? Well, excuse me if I don't believe you, after all, you don't just walk out on someone you love." Aria was hurt by his comment and she said, "You know that's not how it was." Ezra tried to give her a shrug of indifference, but she could see right through him. He was hurt, really hurt, and it was all her fault. After a moment of silence, he said, "I just don't get how someone can go from being worried sick about losing me to leaving me about a week later."<p>

_Aria opened her eyes, still groggy from the anesthesia. She tried to swallow but her mouth was completely dry, she needed water. She used the buzzer to call the nurse, who came a few minutes later. The nurse gave her some water and told her not to drink it all at once, to start with little sips. After taking a few sips, Aria's mouth wasn't dry anymore and she asked in a hoarse voice, "How's Ezra?" The nurse gave her a sympathetic smile and replied, "You know I can't tell you that." Aria frowned and said, "But he's my boyfriend…and he saved my life. Can't you at least let me know if he's alive or not?" The nurse took pity on her and said, "He's alive. But that's all I can say." Aria nodded, smiled and said, "Thank you." The nurse nodded and left the room. Aria put her cup of water on the stand next to her and looked at her left arm, it was in a white cast. Aria pouted, it was a really uncomfortable feeling. Aria leaned back onto the bed and closed her eyes, causing her to fall asleep again._

_Aria slept all through the night, because the next time she woke up, a nurse walked in with breakfast. She asked the nurse when she was allowed to go home and the nurse told her she had to stay one more night. After Aria finished her breakfast, she decided to watch some television. But she wasn't really paying attention, all she could think about was Ezra and how he was doing. A bit later the nurse walked back in, cleared her tray and with a smile she said, "There's someone here to see you." Aria had the biggest smile on her face as she saw a male nurse pushing in Ezra in a wheelchair. After he positioned Ezra next to Aria's bed, the male nurse left. Ezra smiled and said, "Hey beautiful." Aria's smile faded as she realized that Ezra was in a wheelchair and she asked, "Are you okay? Why are you in a wheelchair?" Ezra gave her a reassuring smile and replied, "I'm fine. It's just hospital policy, I can't go anywhere unless it's in a wheelchair." Aria let out a sigh of relief and said, "I'm so happy you're okay. I was so worried!" Ezra took her right hand in his, gave it a reassuring squeeze and said, "I told you I was going to be okay. How are you?" Aria lifted her left arm, covered in the white cast and said, "Broken elbow, they fixed it in surgery yesterday." Ezra's eyes widened and asked, "You had surgery!" Aria smiled and said, "It was nothing. I was more worried about you than about me." _

_Aria's face turned sad and she continued, "I was so scared… I thought I'd never see you again. And nobody would tell me how you were doing!" Ezra stroked her hand with his thumb and asked, "You were really that worried about me?" Aria smiled and replied, "Of course I was! The thought of losing you was driving me crazy, you were all I could think about." Ezra grinned and said, "Well, I'm not going anywhere. Though it might be best if you stay away from cars from now on." Aria giggled and replied in a flirting tone, "But we've had so much fun in them." Ezra chuckled and said, "I know." Ezra looked confused all of a sudden and asked, "But how do YOU know?" Aria had a pensive look on her face as she thought about it. Then her eyes widened and she looked at Ezra with an overjoyed look on her face. She said, "I think I might have my memory back? I didn't realize it until now, because I was too busy worrying about you to think about it, but… I remember everything about us, no blurry details." Ezra grinned and said, "That's great, Aria! I'm so happy for you!" Ezra got out of his wheelchair very slowly, to avoid a drop in blood pressure again. He gave Aria a hug and then a kiss on her forehead. As he sat back down in his wheelchair, he looked a bit wary and asked, "So…you remember everything? Even…Even the fight before your accident?" Aria nodded slowly a couple of times and said, "Let's not discuss that right now. Let's just focus on us getting better." _

And then Ezra walked past her and went over to his parents, who were being consoled by family and friends. Aria let out another sigh and made her way out of the church. She didn't just want to leave like this, maybe if she explained it to him again, he would get it? Probably not though. The way Ezra had just reacted to her being there, he was probably mad at her for the way she left.

_After Aria and Ezra got out of the hospital, they had picked up where they had left off. They were living in their apartment again, but they hadn't mentioned the fight before Aria's first accident anymore. Aria had talked to her mother on the phone once, because Ella kept calling her to find out if she was okay. It had been a brief conversation. As far as Aria was concerned, her relationship with her parents was over for good. They had been out of the hospital for a week now and when Ezra went back to work that morning, Aria had gotten bored. She had no idea what to do, it was not like she had a job of her own to go to. She had started up her laptop in the hope of finding something to do on there. When she opened her email, she saw a bunch of new emails and most of them were from her parents. She deleted them without even reading them. When she looked through her older emails, she saw the email from the publishing house. It said that they would be thrilled to hire someone like her and that if she wanted the job, it was hers. Aria sighed, she had really wanted this job, she still did to be honest. She noticed the Human Recourses phone number at the bottom of the email and looked over at the phone. Should she call them? But what was the point, right? First of all, they had probably given the job to somebody else already after all this time. And second…Ezra would never go with her, he loved it here too much. _

_But this job… it was her dream job, and it would launch her career in ways other jobs couldn't. She thought back to her fight with Ezra, he had made it perfectly clear he wasn't going to give up his job here for her. But why not? Why was his job more important than hers? If the situation was reversed, she would give up her job in a second. She needed to talk to someone, but who? Her parents weren't an option. And she hadn't talked to her friends in a long while…she didn't even know if they were still friends. And then it dawned on her, that this was the exact same problem she had the night after their argument. She had no one to talk to, nowhere to go, so she just started driving and had the accident. She had been so Ezra-centered that all the other things in her life were always number two on her list, because Ezra had always been her number one. The biggest problem with that was that she had even been putting him before herself. It was because she loved him…although maybe a little too much. She always did everything for him, maybe she should do something for herself for once._

_Aria got up, picked up the phone and dialed the number. She explained what had happened to her in the last few weeks. Well, not everything, she left out the part about her parents lying to her. She just told them that she had been in a car accident and that she had been suffering from memory loss until about a week ago. She assured them that she was fine now and she told them that if they still needed someone, she would love to work there. Luck was on Aria's side, because it turned out that the guy they had hired instead of her, wasn't really working out and that they were going to let him go after his trial period. They told her she could start in two weeks, and without hesitation, Aria accepted. After that Aria looked for apartments online in Manhattan, near her work. She soon found one that she liked, and that was affordable, so she called the owner and they agreed to meet at the apartment tomorrow at 11am. It was about a 2 hour drive from Rosewood to Manhattan, so she ordered a rental car online for the next morning. She would leave tomorrow morning and then move into her new apartment immediately. She didn't have that many things, so most of them she could just bring with her. Her other stuff she could just pick up later, or maybe Ezra could box them up and send them to her in Manhattan. Ezra... oh no… what had she done? How was she going to explain this to him? But she needed to do this, for herself, just this once. So she shook it off and proceeded to pack her things._

_When Ezra came home from work that afternoon, he walked into their apartment and looked really confused. He had no clue what was going on and why Aria's suitcases were by the door or why there were a couple of boxes filled with some of her stuff in the living room. Aria was sitting on the couch and looked over at Ezra. Ezra asked, "Are you getting rid of some of your things?", not wanting to think about the other option. Aria cast her eyes down at the ground and swallowed hard. Ezra was getting worried now, so he went to sit next to her on the couch and asked, "What's going on?" Aria sighed, looked him in the eyes and replied, "I, uhm… I'm moving." Ezra looked at her like he didn't understand what she had just said and asked, "Wait…What? Why?" Aria answered, "Because I got a job today." Ezra wanted to ask her where, but to be honest, he already knew where. He said, "In Manhattan… Okay, well, that's great. I'm really happy for you, congratulations." Now it was Aria's turn to be confused, she asked, "You're happy for me?" Ezra nodded and replied, "Of course I am! This job is a huge deal for you and the fact that they still offered it to you, after all this time, means they really think you have great potential." Aria nodded slowly and said, "Yeah, I guess so." Ezra smiled and said, "Of course they do! Why wouldn't they? So... How are we going to do this? Since you've packed all your things, I suspect they want you to start immediately and that you've already found a place to live? So I guess I'll just let my boss know this is my last week at Hollis, tie up some loose ends here and join you on the weekend?" _

_Aria looked uneasy and guilty as she said the following words, "No…I'm moving…alone." Ezra frowned and said, "I… I don't understand?" Aria took Ezra's hands in hers and replied, "This is so hard to say...I think it would be best if I did this on my own." Ezra looked heartbroken and asked, "Are you breaking up with me?" Aria looked down at their hands and softly replied, "I guess I am." Ezra withdrew his hands, got up, turned to Aria and asked, "But why! I thought we were just getting things back to normal!" Aria looked up at Ezra and said, "I need to do this for me. Being alone here today got me thinking that basically you are all I have. And that's mostly my fault, because I have always put you first. I could have gone off to college with my friends, but instead I chose to go to Hollis because you were there. And when I was at college, I spent all my free time with you instead of making new friends. Without you, I have no one. And for a very long time I was okay with that, because I love you, why would I need anyone else? But then I realized that this relationship isn't a healthy one. I've always put your happiness before mine…and you let me do that. And when it came down to it, you couldn't do the same for me." Ezra sat back down next to her, took her hand and said, "But I am willing to do the same, I just said I'd quit my job and move to Manhattan so I can be with you and support you." Aria sighed and said, "I know, I heard you. But I also realize that if the last few weeks hadn't happened, you might not feel the way you do now." Ezra shook his head and said, "That's not true. The moment you walked out that door that night, I instantly regretted everything I had said. The only reason why I acted so childish was because I was scared. Scared of losing you once we were there. You'd begin your new life and I was afraid you'd think I didn't fit in it anymore…" Aria saw in Ezra's eyes that he was telling the truth. She looked at him in regret and said, "But that still doesn't change how I feel right now. If you come with me to Manhattan, our relationship would still be the same. When I'm with you, I don't care about anyone or anything else…including myself. I love you too much for my own good. I love you more than I love myself and that's just not right."_

In front of the church was the town square. Aria walked over to the bench closest to the church and sat down on it. The bench was facing the church, which was convenient, so she could keep an eye out for Ezra when he walked out.

After Ezra talked to some of his family members and friends, he decided he needed a break from it all. He was keeping a brave face for his parents, but on the inside he felt like he was dying. He couldn't understand why he was given a free pass and his brother wasn't. The last time he saw his brother was 2 weeks ago, when he had stayed with Ezra for a few days, before he left on his surfing trip. Now he wished he had tried to talk his brother out of it. If he hadn't gone surfing, he wouldn't have had that accident and he wouldn't have drowned. Ezra excused himself and walked out of the church. First thing he saw was Aria sitting on a bench. He really needed her right now, even though he didn't want to admit it to himself. He sighed and walked over to her, knowing that she was probably waiting for him to come over. When he got to the bench, he took a seat and just stared blankly ahead. He didn't really want to say anything, he just wanted to sit here with her in silence. Aria didn't say a word, she knew exactly what he needed. All she did was take his hand into hers and then they just sat there, together, saying absolutely nothing.

_Aria and Ezra just sat there on the couch, next to each other in complete silence, her hand in his. After hours of just sitting there, Ezra asked, "Are you really sure that this is what you want?" Aria nodded and replied, "It really is." Ezra nodded and said, "Okay. Let's go get some sleep then, you need to get up early." He got off the couch and Aria followed him into the bedroom. When they were in bed, they laid there facing each other. After a while Aria fell asleep, but Ezra stayed awake for hours just staring at her. He was completely heartbroken that she had decided to move on with her life without him. Maybe she would change her mind in the morning? Or after a couple of days without him? He was not ready to lose her again so quickly._

_When Aria woke up, she looked at Ezra. She loved him so much, the thought of saying goodbye was unbearable…so she didn't. She snuck out of bed, got dressed and went outside to wait for the rental car to arrive. When it arrived, she went back and forth to get her stuff and put it in the car. She tried to do it as quietly as she could, but it wasn't that easy because her arm was still in a cast. As she went back to the apartment to get her last box, she walked over to the bed. Ezra was still sound asleep. Aria bent over and kissed him on the forehead. Then she walked over to the last box, picked it up and headed out the door._

_When Ezra woke up, he noticed that Aria wasn't lying next to him. He shot up out of bed and saw that her suitcases and boxes were all gone. He started panicking that she had left without saying goodbye. He checked the bathroom and then he ran outside, hoping she was still there. When he got outside, she wasn't there. He realized that she had left, just like that, without saying goodbye. How could she do this to him? He was sad that he hadn't had the chance to change her mind. Maybe she knew that he might try to, so that's why she left like that? Or maybe she just didn't care? Ezra went back to his apartment and started thinking about everything that had happened the last few weeks. After everything they had been through, how could she just leave him like that? When he had told her he didn't ever want to lose her again, she had told him that he wouldn't. How could she lie to him like that! He was getting really mad now, thinking that everything she had said to him were just lies. Maybe she just didn't love him anymore and she was too gutless to tell him._

After a while Ezra's parents came out of the church and his dad walked over to them, asking if they needed a ride to his mom's house, where they were having the wake. Ezra shook his head and his dad walked away. Once everyone was gone, Ezra let out a sigh and Aria felt him relax next to her. She started stroking his hand with her thumb and after a while he looked down at the ground and said, "I'm not going to the wake." Aria looked at him, squeezed his hand and said, "Okay." After another moment of silence, Ezra turned to Aria and asked, "How's your arm?" Aria turned to look back at Ezra and replied, "The cast went off 3 weeks ago. Sometimes it's still a bit sensitive, but other than that it's fine. How are you?" Ezra looked back at the ground, said, "How am I?", then scoffed and continued, "Let's see. My girlfriend dumped me about 2 months ago and then she moved to Manhattan. I haven't heard from her since then. Well, until today that is. Oh, and my brother died. So yeah…I've been better." Aria tightened her grip on his hand and said, "I'm really sorry." Ezra looked into Aria's eyes and asked, "About what?" Aria sighed softly and replied, "About your brother, about the way I left,…"

Ezra withdrew his hand, got up and rubbed his forehead in exasperation. Aria looked down at her hand, where his hand had been just seconds ago. Ezra turned back around to face her and said, in a frustrated tone, "The WAY you left! Don't you mean THAT you left!" Aria got up too, stood before him and she replied, "I'm not sorry that I left. It's been good for me." Ezra scoffed and said, "Well, I'm glad to hear that your life is so much better now that I'm not in it anymore." Aria sighed and said, "That's not what I said." Ezra shrugged and said, "Well, you might as well have." And then there was a momentary silence, which Ezra broke by asking, "Why did you even come here? In fact, how did you even know about this?" Aria replied, "Your mom called me, she was worried about you. And so was I, so I came here to make sure you were okay." Ezra tried to sound as indifferent as possible as he said, "Well, I'm fine, so you can leave now." Aria sighed softly and said, "I know you, you're not fine." Ezra shook his head in frustration and said, "If you really knew me, then you wouldn't have left the way you did." Aria frowned and said, "I left the way I did BECAUSE I know you. You would have tried to stop me and you know it." Her voice softened as she continued, "And… I couldn't bear to say goodbye to you." Ezra scoffed and in a patronizing tone of voice he said, "So you couldn't say goodbye, but you could walk out on me? Yeah, that makes perfect sense!" Aria looked down at the ground in shame and replied, "I'm not proud of the way I left that morning, but it was easier for me that way." Ezra said, in an aggravated tone, "Well, let me make it easier for you now too. Goodbye." And Ezra turned around and walked away.

Aria looked back up in surprise as she saw Ezra walking away from her. She went after him and when she reached him she grabbed his arm, turned him around to face her and yelled, "Don't you walk away from me!" Ezra took his arm back forcefully and yelled back, "Oh! So you're allowed to walk away, but I'm not!" And then they just stood there, blue eyes staring into hazel eyes, both of them emanating with anger. Suddenly Ezra broke down completely, which took Aria by surprise. In a broken voice he said, "Dammit Aria! Don't you realize how much I need you?" Aria gasped, her anger towards him disappearing completely, and then she pulled him into an embrace.

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><p>Well, that was chapter 10! What did you think?<br>Hope this answered all your questions and got rid of that confusion! If it didn't, please feel free to ask me! :)


	11. Memory malfunction

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pretty Little Liars

Happy reading!

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><p>Ezra buried his face in her neck and inhaled the scent of her hair. She smelled so good, he had missed her so much. Now that she was here with him, maybe things could get back to normal again? He leaned back and looked down into her eyes. She had the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. After all these years, her beauty still took his breath away. Sure, he was mad at her for leaving the way she did, and very hurt. But at this moment, it all just faded away. All he could feel for her right now was love, his heart was overflowing with it. He lifted his hand, cupped the right side of her face with it and stroked her cheek with his thumb. He leaned forward to kiss her, he needed her desperately.<p>

Aria was holding Ezra because she felt he had needed it. The anger she had felt towards him just seconds ago was gone. She had really hurt him and because of that, she felt guilty. Seeing him like that had broken her heart and all she wanted to do was take away his pain. After a while, Ezra leaned back and looked into her eyes. She looked back into his blue eyes, his beautiful blue eyes. She expected to see hurt in them, but this was something completely different, this was love. She felt him cup her face with his hand and stroke her cheek with his thumb. She had missed this so much, so she leaned into his touch slightly. Then she saw Ezra leaning forward, ready to kiss her. Suddenly all kinds of alarm bells went off in her head, she couldn't allow him to do this. Not only would this give him the wrong idea about what was happening here, she also realized that if he kissed her, she would give in to it, and that was the last thing she wanted. Not because she didn't love him, but because she loved him so much she would just forget everything that had happened and just fall back into her old pattern. And there was no way she could allow herself to do that, she was happy now. Sure, she missed Ezra a lot, she thought about him every day. But she needed to live HER life, not his. So just before Ezra's lips touched hers, she took a step backwards so he couldn't. To make her point even more clear, she put her hands up to make sure he wouldn't just take a step closer and try again.

Aria couldn't look Ezra in the eyes as she said, "I- I can't, Ezra, I'm sorry." Ezra was hurt by her rejection. He lifted her chin with his hand, so she would look him in the eyes, and said, "Aria, please… I can't live without you. I need you in my life. Please come back to me." Aria slowly shook her head in regret and replied, "I can't, I'm sorry." Ezra let her go and paced a couple of seconds before he turned back to Aria and asked in a frustrated tone, "So all of this was just fake! Poor pathetic Ezra is hurting, so I'll just pretend to care for him!" Aria shook her head and tried to convince Ezra as she replied, "I'm not pretending to care for you, Ezra. I honestly love you! But that doesn't mean I can just forgive you for the things you've done." Ezra looked at her wide-eyed and said, "Whoa! Wait a minute! I haven't done anything wrong here?"

Aria didn't answer him, she didn't really know how to say it. Ezra was getting impatient now, he really wanted to know what he had done wrong. Maybe if he knew what it was, then he could fix it and they could go back to the way it was before. He asked, "Tell me, what did I do?" Aria worried her bottom lip between her teeth and admitted, "It's more what you didn't do…" Ezra was getting annoyed now by the fact that she wouldn't just come out with it already and asked, "Care to elaborate?"

Aria sighed and explained, "These last 2 months have given me a lot of time to think things through and I started seeing things more clearly. And I realized that I blame you for the non-existent relationship with my parents. I know it might not be fair to you, but it's how I feel and I can't change that." Ezra looked at her in disbelief and asked matter-of-factly, "Are you serious? You're serious. Do you not remember your parents trying to sabotage our relationship all the time?" Aria sighed, she knew she should have never told him how she felt, he would never understand. She started to speak, "I know… but…", but Ezra interrupted her by stating, "And do you not remember that YOU were to one who told me you wanted nothing to do with your parents anymore after Mike died?"

Aria sighed again and tried to explain herself, "Of course…but…", but yet again she was interrupted by Ezra who was growing increasingly angry, "Then why on earth are you blaming me for a decision that YOU made!" Now it was Aria who lost her temper, he had no right to go off at her like this, "Because you shouldn't have let me! You were always the voice of reason when it came to me and my parents. You were always the one to try to get me to see their side of things. You were the one that said breaking up my family to be with you wasn't an option. So what changed all of a sudden?" Ezra replied her, clearly exasperated, "Because you said that it didn't matter what I said this time, that you never wanted to see or speak to your parents ever again. I did try to convince you, but you wouldn't listen. You were even mad at me when I suggested that you were just saying this because Mike had just passed away and that you weren't thinking straight because you were upset."

Aria looked at him confused and said, "No you didn't." Ezra said forcefully, "Yes I did! Don't you remember?" Aria looked at him warily and warned him, "Don't you dare mess with my head, Ezra!" Ezra explained himself saying, "I'm not! You said that it was the opposite, that for the first time in your life you were seeing things clearly." Aria shook her head and said, "You're lying! I don't remember any of that…" With desperation in his voice, he told her, "I'm not lying to you, I swear."

Aria couldn't even look at him, she never expected he would resort to this. As tears started forming in her eyes, she said angrily, "I don't believe you! How could you even try to pull a stunt like this? After what my parents tried to do to me? How can you just stand here and try and put lies in my head!"

Ezra couldn't believe that she was actually accusing him of something like this. She was standing there, comparing him to her parents and it hurt him, really badly. Not to mention that it made him angry, how could she? Ezra replied disappointedly, "And how could YOU even for a second believe that I could be able to do something like that to you?"

And then Ezra turned around and walked away. Aria stood there, utterly confused. She didn't know what to think anymore, what to believe. She had lost trust in everyone around her.

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><p>Uh-oh! What do you think? Do you think they could still make it work, or is it really over this time?<br>Please review!


	12. For old times sake

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pretty Little Liars

**Author's note**: So together with posting chapter 12 of this story, I am also uploading Chapter 1 of my new story, Bold Billionaire (also an Ezria fanfic btw), so check it out if you want! :)

Happy reading!

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><p>Aria just stood there, watching Ezra as he walked away. She wanted to go after him, but maybe it was better this way? Maybe it was better if he hated her. The thought of Ezra hating her was unbearable though, so she yelled, "Ezra, wait!"<p>

With every step Ezra took ,he felt his heart break a little more. He didn't want to walk away from her, but he couldn't stand to see the look in her eyes anymore. Suddenly Ezra heard Aria call out his name and she told him to wait. Ezra stopped and sighed. Slowly he turned around to look at her again. Ezra looked hurt. Clearly exasperated, he asked, "What!"

Aria heard the tone in his voice and felt bad, maybe she should just leave him alone? He was clearly annoyed with her. But Aria couldn't just leave it like this, she needed to try and explain to him why she felt the way she did. Aria started walking towards him and closed the gap between them. When she was standing right in front of him, she looked up into his eyes and said softly, "Please don't run away from me."

Ezra shrugged his shoulders and said, "Why not? It's pretty clear we don't want the same things in life anymore. It's clear that you no longer want me."

Aria shook her head sadly, her eyes averted to the ground. She sighed softly, looked back into his eyes and explained, "Of course I want you…I love you…I just…I don't know what to feel anymore. It's like I have 2 different sides of me now. There's the me from before the accident, and then there's the me from after the accident. And when I got my memory back those two just got mixed together and I don't know what to feel. I love you and on one hand I just want to be with you, but on the other hand I think it's not the right thing for me. And I have all these feelings that I can't place and I don't know what to do with them."

Ezra's face softened as he realized how much Aria was struggling with her feelings. "I'm sorry you have to go through that. Look, I know you want time apart from me, but I'll always be here for you if you ever need to talk. You don't have to go through this alone, I can help you."

Aria looked at Ezra like she couldn't believe what he was saying, "After all I've done to you? Why?"

Ezra stared deeply into Aria's eyes and said, "Because I love you and I don't want you out of my life. So if that means I have to push aside my feelings and just be your friend, then so be it. I'll take you any way I can get you."

As Aria listened to Ezra's words, she started realizing that Ezra was too good of a man. She put her head down, thinking that Ezra deserved someone much better than her. Someone who won't treat her the way she treated him. Someone who won't just walk out on him to pursue a career.

Ezra could tell what Aria was thinking and said, "Stop."

Aria looked up at him from under her lashes and asked, "Stop what?"

He lifted her chin with his hand and said, "Stop making yourself feel bad for wanting what you want."

Aria was amazed that he knew exactly what she was thinking. She sighed and said, "I'm sorry…I'm supposed to be here for you. You're the one that's hurting. And here you are, helping me, instead of the other way around."

Ezra put his hand on her shoulder to reassure her and said, "We're both hurting. We'll help each other."

Aria smiled faintly and asked, "Is there anything I can do for you right now?"

Ezra's hand slid from her shoulder, down her arm to her hand. He held her hand in his and said, "I don't feel like being alone right now. So all I really want and need right now is for you to be here with me."

Aria's eyes brightened in remembrance and she said, "I remember saying something along those lines to you not too long ago."

Ezra replied wistfully, "Seems like forever ago to me."

Aria squeezed his hand and said, "Come on. Let's go home."

And then they made their way over to Aria's car. The drive to Ezra's apartment was in complete silence, which was kind of awkward. There was a certain tension between them that she couldn't quite explain. Seeing as they had many a fun times in cars, she assumed part of the tension between them was of a sexual nature. The other parts were what? Anger, hurt, melancholy, … ?

When they walked into Ezra's apartment, Aria looked around and noticed that the apartment still looked exactly the same. Well, minus her things of course. She saw that all the pictures of them were still there, even the paper bag masks were still in their usual place. She would have thought that he'd have discarded of them. Or at least put them away in a box somewhere in the closet, so he wouldn't have to be confronted with them and their memories together each and every single day. It was like he was punishing himself? Or maybe he was still holding onto the hope that she would return to him?

Aria noticed a box to the side of the apartment, filled with some stuff. Ezra saw Aria looking at the box and said, "You left some of your things behind, I was going to send them to you." Aria nodded, not really knowing what to say to that, so she just went with, "Thank you." Ezra nodded back, then he removed his black suit vest, loosened up his tie and unbuttoned the first few buttons.

After some silence, Aria finally spoke, "So… this is more awkward than I thought it would be." Then they both burst into laughter. Ezra sighed and said, "Yeah, it's pretty weird. Which is crazy, because we've known each other for so long." Aria shrugged her shoulders and said, "Maybe that's the problem? We've been together for years as lovers, going from that to just friends… it's probably going to take some getting used to." Ezra nodded, but Aria could see the sadness in his eyes.

Aria hated seeing him like this, it made her feel even more bad about herself. She took her hand in his and pulled him over to the couch whilst saying, "Come." She sat down on the couch and made Ezra lay down onto it, with his head in her lap. She started playing with his hair and he closed his eyes in enjoyment. After a few moments Aria said, "Talk." Ezra opened his eyes and looked up into hers questioningly, "About what?" Aria shrugged and replied, "About anything. You, us, your brother, something completely else,…" Ezra sighed and looked up at the ceiling, then she spoke, "He was here two weeks ago…my brother. He was going on and on about his trip and how amazing it was going to be. He told me to go away with him, to get my mind of things, to get my mind…of you. Maybe I should have…then maybe…" Ezra couldn't finish his sentence, he felt so guilty. If he had stopped his brother from going or if he had gone with him, then maybe he wouldn't have had that accident. Or maybe it would have been him instead, which would have saved him a whole lot of pain.

Aria brought her hand to his cheek and made Ezra look at her. She looked deep into his eyes and said forcefully, "It's not your fault. There's nothing you could have done." Ezra fought back his tears as he replied, "Then why do I feel so guilty?" Aria could see the tears forming in his eyes and she could feel his pain. Her heart ached in more than one way, she just wanted to make his pain go away. Aria caressed his cheek with her thumb and then leaned down to kiss him on the lips. Ezra was surprised by her gesture, but he didn't fight her, he needed her so much right now. He kissed her back and their kiss deepened.

Their kisses were filled with want, need and so much more. Not letting go of each other's mouth for a second, they moved so that he was sitting on the couch and she was straddling him. Her hands left his face and found his tie, which she removed and threw away. Then she unbuttoned the rest of his shirt, which he then proceeded to shrug off. His hands caressed her thighs as he pushed up her dress to her waist, then she held up her arms and he pulled it off her completely, breaking their kiss for just a few seconds. She undid his belt and then undid the top button and his zipper. He then proceeded to stand up, picking her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist. He kicked off his shoes, stepped out of his pants and then made his way over to the bed, where they proceeded to make love for the first time in a long while.

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><p>Didn't see that coming, huh? Lol<br>So…tell me what you think? I always love to read your thoughts!


	13. What it all comes down to

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pretty Little Liars

Happy reading!

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><p>After their passionate lovemaking, they cuddled and they eventually fell asleep. When Ezra woke up it was a bit in the afternoon. He wanted to put his arm around Aria, but noticed that he had woken up without her at his side. He shot up in bed, his heart pounding in his chest, scared that Aria had once again left him without saying anything. He looked into his apartment and his whole body relaxed as he noticed that Aria was standing in the kitchen, wearing one of his shirts. She was making lunch. Ezra got out of bed, put on some boxers and walked over to where she was. He put his arms around her waist from behind her and kissed her shoulder. Aria smiled at his touch and Ezra said, "Hey beautiful."<p>

Aria turned around, put her arms around his neck and said, "Hey handsome." Then Ezra leaned forward and gave her a demure kiss on the lips. Then he gave her a soft kiss on the tip of her nose and then one on her forehead. She smiled up at him and she studied his face as she stroked a bit of hair from his forehead. Ezra was watching her intently as she was doing this, he enjoyed this. She looked so happy and he knew for a fact that he was happy, which made it even harder on him to kill the mood by addressing the elephant in the room. Ezra asked her carefully, "You do realize we're going to have to talk about what happened between us this morning?" The sparkle in Aria's eyes disappeared and she nodded. She replied, "I know, just… not yet, okay?" Ezra nodded and Aria hugged him tight, not wanting to ever let him go.

Ezra put his arms around her too and kissed her hair. Aria sighed in contentment and then said, "I've missed this so much." Ezra squeezed her tighter for a bit and replied, "Me too." There was a certain sadness that washed over Ezra as he realized she would have to go back to Manhattan at one point. He asked, "When do you have to go back to work?" Aria looked up at him and replied, "The day after tomorrow." Ezra nodded and said, "okay." Aria didn't know what to say, she didn't want to go back, she wanted to stay here with Ezra. But then she realized that this was exactly the reason why she left in the first place, this need to be around Ezra constantly. She suggested they eat lunch and so they did. While they were eating, it was unbelievably quiet. They were both in their own little worlds, both mulling things over in their heads.

After lunch, Aria cleared the table and put the dishes in the sink. She wanted to do the dishes, but Ezra said, "Leave them. I want to spend as much time as possible with you." Aria turned around to face him and nodded. She felt so helpless, she felt like crying. She stormed over to Ezra and kissed him deeply on the lips. He returned her kiss and she could feel his need for her. She got lost in the kiss because she needed him just as much. She needed him so much, it hurt. She broke away from their kiss and said, "I'm not going back, I can't." Ezra looked at her questioningly and asked, "Why not?" Aria sighed, feeling her heart ache, "I don't want to be apart from you anymore."

Ezra didn't really know what to say or feel. On one hand he was overjoyed that she wanted to stay with him, on the other hand he was concerned about her sudden change in opinion. She had done a complete 180 since this morning. He said, "I don't want to be apart from you either, but you have to go back to work." Aria looked hurt and asked, "Don't you want me to stay?" Ezra shook his head and said, "Of course I want you to stay, but you have to go back. You have to think about your future." Aria replied fiercely, "Screw work! You're my future!" Ezra was taken aback by Aria's resolve. Ezra said, "You don't have to choose, you can have both. We can make this work if we want to. We can see each other on weekends, until I find a job there." Aria looked sad as she said, "I don't think I could be away from you five days a week." Ezra raised an eyebrow and replied, "You were away from me for two months, I think you'll be just fine."

Aria was hurt by his comment, even though she knew he was right. Ezra saw the hurt look on her face and apologized, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that." Aria shook her head and said, "No…you're right. You are not the one who should be apologizing, I am…I'm sorry." Ezra shook his head, "You don't have to apologize. I told you earlier today that it's okay to want what you want." Aria looked deep into Ezra's eyes and said, "All I want is you." Ezra sighed and said, "You say that now…but… in a while you'll start to resent me for the fact that you gave up your career for me." Aria replied, "No I won't. And I don't have to give up my career altogether. I can still have a career right here in Rosewood, with you."

Ezra looked at her seriously , "I'm sorry Aria, it's…it's not up for discussion. You are not quitting your job in Manhattan to be with me, I won't let you." Aria was surprised and said, "Excuse me? I'm pretty sure that's _my_ choice." Ezra shook his head and said, "No, it's not. You ran out on me that night because of how much you wanted this job. If I had just agreed to it then, you wouldn't have had your accident. We would have moved to Manhattan and we would have started our lives there, together. Instead, I was too stubborn and you walked out on me. So no, I am not allowing you to quit your job for me. If you do, then all that we went through…was for nothing."

Aria placed her hand on his cheek and said, "My accident is _not_ your fault, okay? I made the decision to drive in that kind of weather, not you!" Ezra shook his head and replied, "If it wasn't for me, then you wouldn't even have gone out, let alone drive a car in that kind of weather. I should have just agreed to move to Manhattan and support your career." Aria sighed and said, "Yes, maybe you could have done some things differently, but that goes for me too. We've both made mistakes, but what matters is that we learn from them and move on, together." Ezra looked worried and asked, "So…you really don't blame me for anything?" Aria worried her bottom lip between her teeth and replied, "Well…I'm still not ready to forgive you for what happened with my parents, but I'll get there." Ezra frowned and said, "But I already told you that I had nothing to do with your decision. I didn't lie, Aria."

Aria didn't say anything, she didn't know what to say. Yes, she loved him and she wanted to be with him, but… in her head Ezra was the reason why she and her parents had such a bad relationship. And if it wasn't for that bad relationship, they wouldn't have done what they did in the hospital. Ezra searched her eyes and asked, "Don't you believe me?" Aria still said nothing, but Ezra could read in her eyes that she didn't believe him. Ezra shook his head and said, "So why on earth would you want to give up your career for someone who you don't trust?" Aria replied, "I _do_ trust you." Ezra frowned and said, "No, you don't. If you did, you'd believe me when I say I would never lie to you." Aria stared at the ground, she didn't know what to think, was he telling the truth? But if he was…that would mean there was still something wrong with her…

Ezra walked over to the box of her stuff, picked it up and handed it to her saying, "Fine, don't believe me? Then you can leave. I'm going to go take a shower right now. I expect you to be gone when I walk out of that bathroom." And then Ezra walked over to the bathroom and slammed the door shut, which startled Aria. Aria started sobbing, but she did as she was told. She got dressed, grabbed her things and walked out of the front door.

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><p>Sooooo….who saw that coming? Ezra's finally standing up for himself? So what do you think?<p> 


	14. Thinking things through

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pretty Little Liars

Enjoy!

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><p>Ezra slammed the bathroom door shut and walked over to the sink. He leaned onto it with his hands, his head hanging down, shaking it in anger and disappointment. Then he looked up at himself in the mirror and he let out a big sigh. He was so sick and tired of it all. He just wanted things to get back to how they used to be. Though, would that be the right thing? Because Aria was obviously not benefitting from their old relationship as she always put his needs before her own. But at least she trusted him back then, that wasn't the case anymore now.<p>

He absolutely hated what had happened these last few months. He felt so guilty about being so stubborn and about not realizing sooner that he was holding her back. Not to mention that the accident could have all been avoided, if it hadn't been for his childish behavior. Ezra glared at himself in the mirror, angry at himself for what he had done. He loved this girl, he never meant to hurt her in any way, but yet he had, repeatedly. He wasn't just mad at himself though, he was also mad at her parents for trying to drive them apart for years, which had put a huge strain on their relationship. Not to mention the fact that they had tried to brainwash her after the accident. And then he got upset at himself again, thinking that it was his fault that they actually could have gotten away with it. If he hadn't bumped into her that day at the bookstore, they would have because there was no one else in her life to save her from their plan….Because of him… It was all his fault, everything.

Maybe if he hadn't listened to her that last time when she told him she really didn't want anything to do with her parents anymore, then maybe they would have still been in her life. Then maybe they would have eventually accepted him…or maybe not. But then at least they wouldn't have been driven to this kind of insanity. She had broken off all contact with them right after Mike had died, so basically they had lost both their children at the same time, which has got to drive a parent crazy. Crazy enough to do something stupid like try and brainwash your own child when presented with the opportunity. It wasn't right what they did, not at all, but Ezra understood how they could have been driven to do something like that.

Aria didn't trust him anymore, but could he blame her for that? It wasn't because she didn't love him, it was because she had gone through so much lately. How could she trust anyone for that matter? If your own family is willing to lie to you like that, then how can you expect other people to be honest with you? How can you believe that they're telling the truth? But then again, he wasn't just anyone. He frowned as he thought about the fact that she couldn't even remember what she had told him back then, what did that mean? Was everything okay with her? He cursed at himself for yelling at her and telling her to leave. What if something happened to her… he would never forgive himself for that.

He started thinking back to when they had gotten out of the hospital, he had been so happy that they were back together. Everything was back to the way things were, her memory newly restored as they reminisced about certain things. Everything was looking up for them. He had even left work early one day and had gone to the jewelry store to buy her a present. He wanted to buy her something to tell her how much he loved her. He wanted her to know that he never wanted to lose her again and that she meant everything to him. Before he knew it, he walked out with an engagement ring. He was going to propose to her that night, after he had made them a nice romantic dinner. But when he got home that afternoon, he noticed she had packed her things, so she obviously didn't feel the same way. It had broken his heart, but he had kept a brave face for her. Sure, he had wanted to persuade her to stay and propose right there and then, but she would have probably turned him down and that thought was unbearable.

As he thought about losing her forever… he felt himself getting sick. He'd rather die, than have to live without her. Although he might have just lost her, by throwing her out like that. How could he have been so stupid! Filled with all the anger, hurt, sadness and guilt that he felt at that moment, he snapped and he punched the mirror in front of him with his fist because he couldn't look at himself anymore. The mirror shattered, glass flying everywhere. Blood stained glass was lying in the sink now and the blood was dripping off his hand into the sink and onto the floor. He looked down at his hand and noticed there were pieces of glass sticking out of his knuckles and the bottom part of his fingers. He winced as he picked out one big piece, it hurt like hell. He started picking out the rest of the pieces, wincing each time, and then throwing the shards into the sink. He couldn't get them all out because some of them were too tiny to remove by hand. He turned on the faucet, rinsed off the blood and then wrapped a towel around his hand to absorb the new blood. He put on some sweatpants and a t-shirt and then took a cab to the hospital.

Ezra went into the emergency room, checked in and waited in the waiting area until someone came to get him. A nurse gave him a local anesthetic and then started removing all the pieces and splinters of glass. Afterwards she cleaned up the wounds and stitched them up. After putting disinfectant on the wounds, she bandaged up his hand and he was good to go. When he was on his way out of the hospital, Ezra almost bumped into Ella. They were both surprised to see each other there and they awkwardly said hello to each other. Ella noticed his bandage and asked, "What happened?" Ezra held up his hand and said, "Oh this! I punched a mirror." Ella raised her eyebrows in surprise and asked, "Are you okay?" Ezra scoffed and replied, "Physically, yeah. Emotionally, not so much." Ella frowned and asked, "Is everything okay with you and Aria?" Ezra raised an eyebrow and replied sardonically, "Why? Do you feel an opportunity arising?"

Ella was visibly taken aback by his arrogance, but she felt like she deserved it. She looked guilty and didn't answer him. Ezra felt guilty about his comment and said, "I'm sorry, I … I shouldn't have said that. I've been going through a lot lately, I didn't mean to take it out on you." Ella replied, "It's okay, I think I kind of deserved that one." She pointed over to the cafeteria and continued, "Do you want to get a coffee and talk about it?" Ezra didn't really know what to do here, but after a bit he just nodded and they headed over to the cafeteria. They bought their drinks, went to sit at a table and then just sat there for a while in awkward silence.

Ella broke it by asking, "So…how have you two been?" Ezra shrugged and replied, "I don't know about Aria, but I've had better times." Ella looked confused and asked, "What do you mean you don't know about Aria?" Ezra explained, "About a week after we left the hospital, she left me. She moved to Manhattan for a job and she didn't want me to come with her." Ella looked surprised and asked, "So you haven't seen or spoken to her since then?" Ezra sighed and replied, "Not exactly. I saw her today actually, for the first time since then, at my brother's funeral." Ella felt bad for him and said, "Oh Ezra, I'm so sorry to hear that." Ezra nodded and just thanked her.

After a few moments of silence, Ella asked, "Did you two get a chance to talk at all?" Ezra replied, "More like fight…and then make-up… and then fight again." Ella asked, "What about? If you don't mind me asking?" Ezra said matter-of-factly, "She blames me for what happened." Ella sounded shocked when she asked, "She said that!" Ezra explained, "Not in those exact words, but it was implied. She's mad at me for coming between you guys and her. She blames me for allowing her to break all contact." Ella looked guilty as she said, "I'm sorry… I never wanted any of this to happen. I just wanted my daughter back… I just wish we would have done it in a different way. If we would have just accepted you, your relationship, then none of this would be happening."

Ezra shrugged and said, "Well, we've all done things we're not proud off." Ella nodded and replied, "True, but I've done a lot of things I'm not proud off. And in the process I hurt my daughter, I hurt you and I hurt your relationship…. I'm sorry that she blames you, she should know it's not your fault. Why would she even expect you to stand up for us after what we tried to do back then?" Ezra said, "I'm guessing it's because she doesn't know about it." Ella looked confused and asked, "What do you mean she doesn't know?" Ezra replied matter-of-factly, "I never told her." Ella looked surprised as she heard that, "What! Why didn't you tell her? I always assumed she broke off contact because of that." Ezra explained, "I didn't tell her because it would have broken her heart. I knew that she would resent you for it and I didn't want her to feel that way. As for why she did break off contact, I have no idea why, she never told me."

Ella offered up a solution, "Maybe you should tell her now, it might save your relationship?" Ezra shook his head and said, "No, as far as I'm concerned, she'll never know about it." Ella frowned and asked, "Even if it means losing her forever if you don't?" Ezra nodded and said, "Yes." Ella didn't really understand that, "But you do want her back, don't you?" Ezra shrugged and explained, "I don't know… I'm at a loss here. I don't know what to do anymore. I don't know what's right. Right for her, right for me, right for us. Everything in my entire being tells me that I'm no good for her… but I can't live without her. I know that I should let her go, but I can't. Does that make me a selfish person?"

Ella shook her head and replied, "No it doesn't, it just means you're in love. If you're willing to sacrifice your own happiness and your relationship, just so she could be happy… then you're not selfish at all. I have no idea why you believe you're no good for her, but from what I can tell, I don't think that's true at all." Ezra gave her a faint smile and said, "Thank you, that actually means a lot coming from you. But… I don't think it's in her best interest for us to get back together. She should move forward with her life, do great things with it. She shouldn't be tied down to me, constantly giving up opportunities to be with me. And to be honest, I don't even know if we could get back to how we were."

Ella said, "Well, maybe that's a good thing? Maybe you shouldn't try and go back to how you were, but maybe you should move forward together and become a new you? I don't think you should give up on your relationship just yet…not until you've tried everything." Ezra shook his head sadly and said, "I don't see how we could move forward together and try again, if she doesn't trust me." Ella sighed and said, "Please don't hold that against her. The reason why she doesn't trust you is not because of you, it's because of me and Byron. She probably doesn't trust anyone right now, but I'm one hundred percent positive that you're the only one that could help her with that."

Ezra asked, "So what do I do then?" Ella replied matter-of-factly, "It's pretty simple: you move to Manhattan and you fight for her. If you're really serious about doing this, then I will help you any way that I can. I have a friend at Manhattan College, maybe he can pull some strings and get you a job there…"

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><p>Thank god he didn't have glass in his hair, am I right! lol<br>So… who saw that coming? Did you like it? What are your thoughts about this all, I'm curious! :) So please review!


	15. the last memory

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pretty Little Liars

**Author's note:**Flashback = italics!

Happy Reading!

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><p>Aria walked out of Ezra's apartment. She put the box of her stuff in the passenger's seat and then got into the driver's seat. She drove off, on her way back to Manhattan. After a couple of minutes, she drove past a coffee shop and decided to stop for some coffee. She went inside, ordered her coffee to go and then went back to her car. As she was sitting in her seat, sipping her coffee, she eyed the box and its content.<p>

Aria started going through the things that were in the box. Suddenly something caught her eye, it was a photo album. She took it out of the box and as she went through it, she noticed that it was filled with pictures of Mike. She looked at the pictures and smiled as she remembered some of the times they had had together. Then she got to the pages with pictures of Mike in the hospital. She spotted a picture of her and Mike on his hospital bed, but Aria couldn't remember it at all. She frowned, how could she not remember this? She wondered to herself who made the album, but when she flipped the page, she spotted her own handwriting. Aria said to herself, "I made this album? Why don't I remember that?" Suddenly she thought that maybe she didn't remember it, because she was suppressing them? Thinking of Mike and him being gone was really painful, so maybe this was her way of protecting herself?

Aria decided to drive over to the cemetery, to visit Mike's grave, before she went back to Manhattan. When she was there, she parked her car, took the picture of her and Mike out of the album and then she walked over to his grave. Aria didn't really know what to do or say at first, but eventually she started speaking, "I wish I knew what I was doing here, but I don't. Maybe I'm looking for answers, for a sign, something… I feel so lost and I don' t know how to find my way again. I love him, but how can I just trust what he says? I don't remember it, so why should I believe him? I love him, but it's clearly not enough, is it?"

Aria looked down at the picture of them in her hand and all of a sudden, she remembered their last conversation.

_Ezra took a picture of Aria and Mike sitting on his hospital bed. He placed the camera on the table in the room and then excused himself so Aria and Mike could have some time alone together. When Ezra was at the door, Mike said, "Take care of my sister for me, will you?" Ezra nodded and replied, "I promise I will." They smiled at each other and then Ezra left the room, closing the door behind him._

_Mike turned to Aria and said, "You know what sucks the most about this whole dying thing? The fact that I won't be here to protect you anymore. The fact that I won't be able to make sure that no one hurts you or to make sure that you'll be okay. But it gives me peace of mind to know that I can count on Ezra to do that for me. To be honest, I'm not worried about you one bit, because I know that Ezra will be there for you no matter what. I know that he's always going to protect you and that he won't let anyone hurt you. I'm really happy that you've been so lucky to have found someone like him."_

_Aria was trying to fight back her tears and said, "Thank you. That means a lot." Mike didn't really know how to say what he wanted to say next. He looked a bit uncomfortable as he said, "Promise me you won't just give up on him and your relationship when things get tough, okay? I know for a fact that he'd never do that, but you… I love you, Aria, but …I know you. When things get tough, when there's confrontation, you tend to run as fast as you can." Aria felt insulted and replied, "I would never do that to Ezra!" Mike nodded and said, "I really hope so, because I can tell you right now that things aren't going to be any easier for you two. I hate what mom and dad tried to do to him and it worries me what they will try and do next. They will literally stop at nothing and I won't be here to help you. You two need to stick together no matter what."_

_Aria looked confused and asked, "What do you mean? The whole forbidding me from seeing him thing? They will come around someday, I just know it. All they have to do is give him a chance, so that they can see what I see." Mike looked at her confused himself, "No, the whole trying to get him arrested thing?" Aria turned pale and she felt sick to her stomach as she heard Mike say that. She asked, "What! What are you talking about?" Mike realized he had said too much and replied, "You didn't know that? I probably shouldn't have said anything. Sorry, just forget I mentioned it."_

_Aria said, "No! Please tell me, I deserve to know what they did!" Mike didn't really know what to do here, but he guessed she was right, she did deserve to know. Mike sighed and said, "Fine… Mom and dad paid some girl from our high school, who was in Ezra's class, to go to the police. She had to tell them that Ezra had taken advantage of his position as a teacher and that he had made a pass at her." Aria couldn't believe what she was hearing, "They did what!" Mike shrugged apologetically and continued, "The girl agreed to it and Ezra was called into questioning. The night he had allegedly made a pass at her, was when you and him were sneaking off together. Knowing that our parents would find out and the fact that you were one of his students too…he couldn't say he was with you, so he didn't have an alibi. He would have gone to jail if the girl hadn't gotten scared and confessed to making up the whole thing in the end." _

_Aria felt angry and helpless at the same time, "How did I not know about this?" Mike shrugged and replied, "_ _I only know because I overheard mom and dad arguing about it after their plan fell through. But it's weird that Ezra didn't tell you about it, I mean…he almost went to jail for something he didn't do, because of our parents. I love them, but I absolutely hate them for doing things like this." Aria felt confused, "Why would he keep something like this from me, I don't get it?" Mike thought to himself and then suggested, "Maybe he didn't want to ruin your relationship with our parents? If that's the case, then he's an even greater guy than I already thought he was."_

_Aria thought back to when her parents had found out about her and Ezra, "He once told me that breaking up our family, just so him and I could be together, wasn't a choice." Mike looked guilty as he said the following, "I love mom and dad, but what they did… I want you to be happy, Aria. And as much as it might hurt them to lose two children at once, I think you should choose your own happiness over theirs." Aria nodded and said, "You're right, thank you Mike. I love you so much, I don't know what I'm going to do without you." Then they hugged as the tears rolled down Aria's cheeks. _

Aria was crying, why couldn't she remember this sooner? Ezra was right, it had been her decision. Mike had indeed helped her see things clearer. Ezra hadn't lied to her. Suddenly she felt really bad for not trusting him. She had accused him of being the reason why her relationship with her parents was non-existent, when it hadn't been his fault at all. It was actually quite the opposite, he had kept this big secret from her, just so she wouldn't break up her family. And even when he knew he might lose her forever , even then he didn't tell her about what her parents had tried to do to him…

Aria couldn't blame Ezra for being so mad at her, he was right. Not to mention, Mike had been right too. When things got tough, she bailed… more than once. Maybe the car accident had been her punishment for walking out on him in the first place. She desperately needed to make this right again. Aria wanted to go back to the apartment right now, but she realized that he would still be too mad at her to listen to what she had to say. She decided to stay at a hotel and go visit him the next day.

Aria had hardly slept all night, going over everything in her head. Desperately trying to find the right words to say to him. The next day she got in her car and drove over to his apartment. She took the stairs and as she got to the third floor, she heard Ezra's voice out in the hallway. Aria peeked around the corner and saw an attractive brunette leaving his apartment. She heard Ezra say, "So, I'll see you tonight then?" The attractive woman replied, "It's a date", and then they both laughed. Aria felt heartbroken, how could he replace her so quickly? She started crying again as she made her way down the stairs.

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><p>There, that's another chapter for ya! :)<br>So what did you guys think? What do you think is going on? Who is that attractive brunette?  
>Please review!<p> 


	16. Unfortunate

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pretty Little Liars

Happy reading!

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><p>It was Sunday and it had officially been a week since Aria had left Ezra's apartment building in tears that morning. Seeing him with that gorgeous brunette, laughing and talking about going on a date, had really broken her heart. She had gotten in her car and driven back to Manhattan immediately. The next day she had gone to work, but she couldn't concentrate at all, her mind just kept drifting to Ezra and how she had messed up everything. She couldn't blame him for finding someone else, after all, he deserved to be happy. He had seemed happy, that was most important here, right?<p>

Seeing as she was no help at work whatsoever, she had called in sick the next day. She had done that every day for the rest of the week. She looked like crap, she really did feel sick. She looked as pale as a ghost and she felt nauseated. Because of it, she had hardly eaten the last week, so she felt faint too. But nevertheless, she needed to snap out of it. If she didn't go back to work soon, she would surely be fired and then all of this would have been for nothing. She would end up having lost Ezra _and_ her job. Then again, nothing mattered without him.

She felt another headache coming on. She sighed because she thought she was done with those. Aria walked over to the bathroom and got the pill bottle with painkillers, that her doctor had given her, out of the medicine cabinet. She went over to the kitchen, got a glass of water and went to sit on the couch in the living room. She rubbed her head in pain, hating the fact that her headache was more intense than usual. Not to mention, whenever she took one of those pills, they hardly took away her pain. She already felt bad enough, she didn't need this on top of everything. Seeing as they hardly worked anyways, she decided to take two instead of one. Maybe then they'd work for a change. After taking her pills, she laid down on the couch to rest. After a while the pills kicked in and she fell asleep.

In the last week, Ezra had been very busy. After his conversation with Ella at the hospital, everything had been crystal clear to him. He needed Aria in his life, he just couldn't live without her. If she didn't trust him, or couldn't forgive him yet, then he would just have to deal with that. He would just have to gain back her trust and he would do anything to make her forgive him. He only wanted her, there was no one else and there never would be. Ella had called up her friend after their conversation and he had agreed to set up an interview with the dean for Ezra.

But Ezra had made a huge decision. Even if he couldn't get a job there, he'd still move out there to be with her. Even better, he was going to buy a house or an apartment there for the two of them. He had contacted a real estate agency, and one of the women who worked there, had come by with a list of possible real estate properties the next morning. He had looked through all of them and had decided on a two-bedroom singly family home, only twenty minutes from where she worked . He thought it was perfect for them, so he bought it. The woman came back later that evening with the paperwork for him to sign.

The rest of the week had been pretty hectic. Telling his landlord that he was moving out, boxing up all of his stuff and then moving into their new house. He was overjoyed with his decision and he couldn't wait to tell her. Of course, he had no idea how she was going to react. Maybe she'd hate it, or maybe she wouldn't want anything to do with him anymore. After all, he had yelled at her and kicked her out of his apartment.

He had also went to his job interview at Manhattan College. Luck had it that one of the English department teachers was going on maternity leave in a few weeks and they could use someone to replace her in the meanwhile. Of course it was only temporary, but who knew, by then they might keep him on permanently.

Ezra was unpacking the last box of his stuff, a box of books. After he had finished putting them in the bookcase, he was finally finished, which meant he was finally ready to go see Aria and bring her back here.

It was Sunday, so he hoped she was at home. He went over to where she lived and was standing in front of her apartment door. He was so nervous, but excited at the same time. He knocked on the door, but there was no response. Maybe she wasn't home?

Something woke Aria up, she heard noise and it felt like a pounding in her head. She felt dizzy and her mouth was so dry, she really needed to drink some water. She reached for her glass of water on the table, but she was just so tired and the glass was so heavy, that she dropped it onto the floor. She wanted to get up, but her eyes fell closed again.

Ezra knocked again and suddenly he heard a shattering of glass on the other side of the door. He was alarmed and knocked on the door again, calling out Aria's name. He asked her if she was there, what was going on, but there was still no response. He tried to open the door, but it was locked. He had no other option than to bust open the door.

The door flew open and he noticed that Aria was lying on the couch, looking like she was asleep. Her hand was hanging off the couch and under it there were pieces of glass and a puddle of water. He ran over to her, calling her name in a panicked voice, but she didn't move. As he reached the couch, he heard the pieces of glass creaking under his shoes. He could tell that she was still breathing, so he shook her softly by the shoulders and called out her name a couple of times. Her eyes fluttered open, but they closed again just as fast. Then Ezra noticed the bottle of pills on the coffee table. His eyes widened and he shook her again, but harder now. His panic increasing, he demanded, "Aria, open your eyes! How many pills of these did you take?" Aria moaned in pain, the loudness of his voice worsening her headache.

Aria heard him ask her how many pills she had taken, so she murmured, "Just two." Ezra checked the bottle and reprimanded her, "You're only allowed to take one every eight hours. No wonder you're like this!" But she didn't hear him as she fell asleep again. He didn't know what to do and he didn't want to take any chances, so he decided to take her to the hospital. He picked up Aria in his arms, carried her out of her apartment and said to himself, "You know, I'm really starting to dislike hospitals."

Ezra laid Aria down in the backseat of his car and drove her to the hospital. When he got there, he carried her to the ER. When he talked to the nurse, he showed her the bottle and explained that she had taken two instead of one and that she would hardly wake up. She lead them to an exam room and he put her down onto the exam table. The nurse turned to him and asked, "Are you related?" Ezra realized that he'd be kicked out of the room if he said no, so he said, "I'm her husband." The nurse nodded and then left to go get a doctor.

When the doctor came in, he started asking some questions and Ezra answered them as good as he could. The doctor asked, "When did she take the pills?" Ezra shrugged and replied, "I don't know. I got home and I found her on the couch like this. She woke up a few times, told me she'd taken two pills." The doctor nodded and asked, "Do you know why she took them?" Ezra shook his head and answered, "No, but I suspect because she had a headache? That's what the painkillers are for. She had a car accident not too long ago and she suffered from amnesia for a while, but everything was okay again." The doctor frowned and asked, "So you have no idea whether or not she's still suffering from headaches?" Ezra frowned too and replied, "No, I guess not." The doctor asked, "Any other ideas as to why she would take more than the prescribed amount of pills? Did she seem down at all the last few days or?" Ezra didn't like where he was going with this and said, "She only took two! It's not like she took a handful of them! She didn't try and hurt herself, she would never do that." The doctor realized he had upset Ezra and said, "It's just a routine question. I suggest we take a head CT scan to check if we can see something wrong. You can go sit in the waiting room, they'll come and get you when we've finished."

Ezra did as he was told and went to sit in the waiting room. After a long while, someone called out, "Mr. Montgomery?" Then the nurse called out the name again. Ezra looked up, realizing that she was talking to him. She lead him to a different room, a patient room, not an exam room. He saw Aria lying in bed, with beeping machines next to her and an IV in her arm. He started feeling ill, what was wrong? The doctor started talking, "We did the head CT and it showed a blood clot. It's reasonably small, but we suspect that that is what has been giving her these headaches. Most like it was caused by her accident, I'm surprised the other doctors didn't pick up on it."

Ezra just stood there, mouth agape, a blood clot? What did that mean? Was she going to… ? He couldn't finish that thought. The doctor continued, "We've put her on an IV with a fast-acting blood thinner that should dissolve the blood clot. If however it does not, we'll have to remove it surgically." Ezra's eyes widened, remove it surgically? He asked anxiously, "And how would you do that?" The doctor explained, "We'd have to drill a hole in her skull and then we'd remove the blood clot using a special needle." Ezra felt like his heart had stopped, "Oh..."

The doctor reassured him, "But don't worry about that yet, it's only if the blood thinner doesn't work. Right now, all we can do is wait." Ezra thanked the doctor and then the doctor left the room. Ezra ran his hand through his hair, completely at a loss. He grabbed his cell phone and dialed a number. After a few rings the person on the other side picked up and Ezra said, "Hey…uhm, something has happened. How fast can you and Byron get to Manhattan?"

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><p>So….what do you think? Any ideas on what's going to happen? Please review and tell me what you think! :)<p> 


	17. Decisions

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Pretty Little Liars

**Author's note**: Sorry for the late update, but here's a long chapter to make up for it!

Happy reading!

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><p>Ezra sat in a chair next to Aria's bed, holding her hand, waiting for her to wake up. Ella and Byron could show up any minute now. They had said they would leave immediately and it was about a two hour drive from Rosewood to Manhattan, if there wasn't much traffic. Two hours and a half later, they still weren't here. What was keeping them?<p>

Ezra looked over at Aria, she seemed so peacefully asleep. The thought of her being sick…the thought of her being in so much pain all the time…maybe being asleep was a good thing, at least then she didn't feel any pain. Ezra sighed, luck really wasn't on their side at all lately. Was the universe trying to tell them something? Maybe this wasn't meant to be? No, he refused to believe that. This woman was his whole world, he would never leave her side ever again.

Minutes later, Ella and Byron walked into the room. As they saw Aria laying there in the hospital bed, it brought back memories to the first time they saw her like that a few months ago. Byron looked uncomfortable, because he felt uncomfortable. Ezra could have just decided not to call them at all, he could have not informed them that Aria was in the hospital, like he had done. He wouldn't have blamed Ezra if he had done the same. But Ezra hadn't, because, even though Byron didn't want to admit it to himself, Ezra was a good guy. Maybe Ezra did have Aria's best interest at heart after all.

Ella looked at Ezra and asked, "Ezra, what's wrong?" Ella was freaking out, she had been for almost three hours now. When Ezra had called her to inform them that Aria was in the hospital, he hadn't told her what was wrong with Aria. Ezra didn't think it was appropriate to tell her over the phone.

Ezra looked at Ella and replied, "It's not good… she has a blood clot in her brain. They think it's mostly likely because of her accident. They did say it was reasonably small and they've give her a blood thinner to try and dissolve it." Ella blinked a couple of times and then all of a sudden it sunk in, "Try?" Ezra nodded sadly and replied, "Yes…There's a chance the blood thinner won't work and then they'll have to remove the blood clot surgically." Ella gasped and asked overwhelmed, "Brain surgery?" Ezra just nodded sadly again.

Ella shook her head in disbelief and said, "Oh my God…How did this happen? Thank God you found her! Who knows what would have happened if you…" Ella couldn't finish her sentence, the thought of Ezra not finding Aria until it was too late was something she couldn't allow herself to think about.  
>Byron was confused, why wouldn't Ezra find Aria? They lived together, right? The fact that Aria had been living in Manhattan for the last couple of months was hard enough on him as he had no idea she had moved. So when his wife had told him about Aria being in the hospital in Manhattan, it came as a total surprise to him. But he at least assumed that Aria and Ezra had moved there together, was that not the case here? And how come his wife seemed to know more than he did? And if she did know more, then why on earth didn't she tell him?<p>

Byron turned to Ella and asked, "What do you mean, thank God he found her? Aren't they living together?" Ella frowned and replied, "I'll explain later, now is not the time." Byron said, "Actually, now is the perfect time. What has been going on these last few months!?" Ella narrowed her eyes at Byron, why was he focusing on this when his daughter had a blood clot in her brain!?

Ezra noticed the tension between them and explained, "After Aria was released from the hospital, she broke up with me about a week later and she moved here. About a week ago, she came to my brother's funeral and we made up. But then we got into another fight… She went back to Manhattan and I realized that I didn't want to live without her. So I decided to move and get a job here, which I did. I had just finished unpacking this morning and I had gone to her apartment to pick her up, so I could show her the house I bought for us, but-" Before Ezra could finish his sentence, both Ella and Byron said in shock, "You what!?"

Ezra replied hesitantly, "I bought us a house…" Ella shook her head in disbelief and said, "I know I told you to move here and fight for her, but buying a house!? Isn't that a bit fast!? You should be taking things slow and getting to know each other again, not play house." Byron's mouth dropped open in shock, then he turned to his wife and asked, "You told him to move here!?" Ella pursed her lips at Byron and replied, "Yes Byron, yes I did." Byron couldn't believe what he was hearing and asked, "Why would you do that!?" Ella raised her voice at Byron as she replied, "Because I care about my daughter's happiness!"

Byron looked hurt, he cared about his daughter's happiness too! The whole reason why he tried to keep Ezra away from his daughter was because of that. Could he have been that wrong? Byron started feeling guilty. Maybe he needed to accept the fact that this man made his little girl happy?

All of a sudden they heard a moan coming from Aria's lips. Aria blinked a couple of times, still feeling a bit sleepy. When her eyes focused, she noticed that Ezra and her parents were around her. She noticed she was in the hospital. What had happened? Why were her parents and Ezra in the same room and not fighting? Why did they look so worried? Ezra leaned closer to Aria, gently pushed a strand of hair out of her face and then stroked her cheek with his thumb. He asked, "How are you feeling?"

Ezra was here...he wasn't mad at her anymore? Then she recalled seeing him at her apartment…why was he there? Why was he here in Manhattan, why were her parents? Where they even in Manhattan? Maybe it had all been a dream? Maybe she had just woken up from a coma after her car accident? She secretly hoped so.

Aria's voice sounded hoarse as she replied, "Confused. Where am I? What happened?" Ezra looked even more concerned as he asked, "You don't remember? I found you in your apartment, you were totally out of it because you took more than the prescribed amount of painkillers." Aria remembered having a headache and taking painkillers for it, but she only took two, so why was she in the hospital? She pushed the thought aside, she needed to talk to Ezra. She needed to tell him that she remembered what his parents tried to do to him. She needed to tell him that she knew it wasn't his fault. She needed to tell him she was sorry.

Aria told Ezra, "I need to talk to you." The look in her eyes told him that it was urgent and private, so Ezra looked in Ella and Byron's direction. They got the message and Ella said, "Why don't we go let the nurse and doctor know that you're awake." Then they left the room.

The second they were out of the room, Aria jumped right in, "I remembered it wasn't you who came between me and my parents…After our fight, I visited Mike's grave and I remembered. I'm so sorry I didn't believe you! I should have believed you…it's all my fault." Ezra was relieved Aria had finally remembered and he said, "It's not your fault….but why didn't you come back afterwards?" Aria's face fell as she recalled seeing that gorgeous brunette leave his apartment in the morning and replied, "I did… I came back the next day… just when a woman left your apartment. You were talking about going on a date and you looked so happy… you deserve to be happy, even if it isn't with me."

Ezra frowned as he thought to himself. Talking to a woman about going on a date? Then it hit him, the real estate agent! She had made some joke about her coming back later that evening being a date. Oh why did Aria choose that exact moment to come back!? Ezra reassured Aria, "It's not what you think. That woman was a real estate agent and she was coming back later that night so I could sign the papers for the house I bought….for us. That's why I was so happy." Ezra got Aria's key out of his pocket and handed it to her as he said, "I was on my way this morning to come and get you, so I could show you our house. When I saw it, I knew it was perfect for us. Not to mention the address is 26 Happiness lane, so it's meant to be." Aria looked at the key in her hand and Ezra said, "Turn it over." Aria turned over the key and noticed that the key was engraved with "Until I met you." Aria bit her lip to try and fight back her tears… she was so happy, everything had worked out.

Ezra noticed Aria getting tears in her eyes and asked, "Hey, what's wrong?" Aria shook her head and replied, "Nothing…I'm just happy…Everything worked out perfectly in the end." Ezra looked rueful as Aria said that, which she noticed so she asked, "What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Ezra sighed and replied, "I don't really know how to say this… The doctors took a head CT scan when I brought you in, just to make sure…" Aria started feeling sick to her stomach, where was he going with this? Aria asked hesitantly, "And?" Aria had never seen Ezra look so sad as he said, "You have a blood clot in your brain." Aria just stared blindly ahead as the news started to sink in. She asked, "And what does that mean exactly?" Ezra frowned at himself and replied, "I don't know. They've given you a blood thinner to try and dissolve it, but…if it doesn't…" Aria started panicking and she asked, "Then what!?" Ezra replied sounding defeated, "Then you'll need brain surgery."

Aria's eyes widened in shock and she gasped, "Brain surgery?" Ezra nodded sadly. Aria didn't know what to think or say anymore. Ezra took Aria's hand in his and reassured her, "You'll be okay, I promise." Then the door opened and Aria's parents walked in again, this time accompanied by the doctor. The doctor said, "Hello Miss Montgomery, I'm doctor Kingston. Have they told you about what's going on yet?" Aria nodded and replied, "Yes, they have. I don't get it, how did this happen?" Doctor Kingston explained, "I had Rosewood Community Hospital send me a copy of your records and I studied them. I think they misdiagnosed you. I believe you already had a blood clot in your brain before the accident. When you suffered that blow to the head because of the accident, the blood clot was released and caused a stroke, which in turn caused your memory loss. If this is true, then it means something is causing you to have these blood clots and we need to find out what it is."

Aria asked, "So even If I have the surgery to remove this one, I might get another blood clot?" Doctor Kingston replied, "That's a possibility, yes. But we might be able to figure out what's causing them and help prevent future blood clots. Also, we don't know if you need surgery yet. We've put you on blood thinners and hopefully the blood clot will just dissolve, so no surgery will be needed." Everyone else in the room looked shocked as Aria asked the next question, "If it turns out the blood thinner didn't work…What if I choose not to get the operation. What could happen then?" After his initial shock, doctor Kingston frowned and replied, "I strongly disapprove of not going through with the surgery if it turns out the blood thinner didn't get rid of the blood clot. Your previous one caused memory loss, this one might do the same or it might cause one of the many other effects like paralysis, impaired body functions, coma, ... Worst case scenario you could die."

After Aria thanked the doctor for answering her questions, he left the room. The second the doctor was out the door, Ezra turned to Aria and asked, "What was that about!?" Aria shrugged and replied, "I just want to know all there is to know." Then Ezra asked, clearly annoyed, "Then why did you only ask what could happen if you didn't go through with the surgery instead of asking what might go wrong if you did?" Aria looked down, avoiding eye contact with Ezra, which gave him his answer. Ezra shook his head in exasperation, got up and walked out of the room. Much to everyone's surprise, Byron went after him.

When Ezra reached the end of the hallway, Byron turned him around and said, "Hey! No matter what she decides to do, she's going to need you. You don't just get to walk out when she decides to do something you don't agree with." Ezra raised an eyebrow and asked, "Oh, so you agree with her decision!?" Byron shook his head and replied, "No I don't. But she's scared right now and she's not thinking clearly. She'll come around eventually and do the right thing, you know that. You know her better than anyone." It pained Byron to admit that, but it was true. Ezra replied sadly, "Which is exactly why I know she won't change her mind."

In the meanwhile, Ella went to sit in the chair next to her daughter's bed and said, "I really wish you'd reconsider. If it turns out you do need the surgery and you don't go through with it… Do you have any idea what will happen to Ezra if something happens to you?" Aria scoffed and replied, "Oh, now all of a sudden you have Ezra's best interest at heart? That didn't seem to be the case the time you tried to send him to jail!" Ella sighed and said, "That was a long time ago and we were wrong to do that. But don't try and change the subject here, because what you're planning on doing is going to destroy him. Did you see his hand? It's full of cuts from punching a mirror last week after your fight. I can't imagine what he'll do if…." Ella couldn't finish the thought. Aria looked guilty, her mother was right.

Byron and Ezra walked back into the room and both Ella and Aria looked at them questioningly. Before they could say anything a nurse walked in and announced, "I'm sorry, visiting hours are over for now, but you can come back later tonight." They said their goodbyes and then left the room. The nurse spotted that Aria's IV bag was empty, checked her chart and then said, "That IV can go now. I'll let the doctor know and someone will come and get you in a while for a new CT scan." The nurse removed the IV and then left the room.

Aria thought to herself, "So this is it. In a bit I'll know whether or not I need surgery." Aria started panicking, she couldn't do this. She couldn't make this decision. She needed to think things through first, but she couldn't do that here. She didn't even want to be here. Aria spotted her clothes and purse on the table next to the window and got out of her bed. She took them, left the room trying not to get spotted by anyone and walked into the first public bathroom in the hospital she saw to get changed. Then she walked out as fast and inconspicuously as she could and left the hospital.

A few minutes later the nurse walked back into Aria's room holding another IV bag and said, "Doctor changed his mind. Apparently you need another-" The nurse noticed that Aria wasn't in her bed anymore, so she knocked on the bathroom door and asked, "Miss Montgomery, are you in there?" When there was no answer, she opened the door and noticed that she wasn't in there either. The nurse ran to the nurses' station to alert that a patient had run away.

After Ezra, Byron and Ella had left the room, they had walked over to a waiting area. They had just taken a seat there, sitting there together in silence. They didn't really know what to say. All of a sudden there was a lot of hustle and bustle at the nurses' station and it caught their attention. They overheard them saying that the patient in room 202 had taken off. All three of them looked at each other with a knowing look on their face, 202 was Aria's room! They walked over to the nurses' station and asked them what had happened. The nurse that was in Aria's room explained what had happened and that they couldn't find her anywhere. All of a sudden Ezra took off and Ella yelled after him, "Where are you going?" Ezra turned around and yelled back, "I think I know where she went" and then he took off.

After driving for a bit, Ezra parked his car on the driveway of their new house and got out of the car. He went into the house and searched for Aria. When he was in the kitchen, he noticed her in the backyard, she was sitting on the swing set. He went out into the backyard and walked towards her. When Aria noticed Ezra, a faint smile crossed her lips and when he reached her, she said, "It's a beautiful house. I love the swing set, it'll come in handy when you have children." Ezra corrected her, "When _we_ have children", and he went to sit on the swing next to her. Aria gave him a look that said she wasn't so sure about that. Ezra admonished her, "Don't you dare give up, you don't even know what's going to happen yet." Aria chuckled sardonically and said, "With my luck…"

Ezra took her hand in his and said, "Then we'll deal with it…together." Aria shook her head heavyhearted and replied, "I can't do it, Ezra. I just can't. If the doctor's right, then it won't matter whether or not I get the surgery. I'll just keep getting new blood clots again and again. I don't want to live the rest of my life in and out of the hospital. I don't want to go through brain surgery knowing that any second I can just get another blood clot and need another surgery. I just want to continue living my life the way it is now, no matter how little time I may have left." Those last words made Ezra feel like he was being punched in the stomach, the thought of her not being there anymore…

Ezra got out of the swing, said, "Wait here", and then walked inside the house. About a minute later he walked back outside and towards her. When he stopped in front of her, he started saying, "I don't agree with your choice, because I don't want to lose you, but I do understand where you're coming from. So I'm going to be there for you in any way that I can, no matter what happens. However, I do have one favor to ask of you…" Aria nodded and said, "Anything." Ezra took her left hand in his, got down on one knee and said, "Marry me". Aria gasped as he slid an engagement ring on her finger. She looked down at it and then she threw herself at him to kiss him, which caused them to fall back onto the grass. Ezra broke away from their kiss, looked Aria in the eyes and asked, "So that's a yes then?" Aria grinned and replied, "That's a really big yes." Ezra grinned back and then they resumed kissing.

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><p>Wow! This chapter was a lot to process, no? What did you think? Review!<br>I am going to give you a little (big) spoiler for the next chapter…. EZRIA WEDDING!  
>How excited are you now? Review and let me know!<br>Also, it would be awesome if I could get to 200 reviews before the next chapter! (You can review anonymously if you don't have an account on here!)


	18. The Wedding

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Pretty Little Liars

**Author's note**: As you know, this chapter is an Ezria wedding. Before you read this, you should go to my newly created Twitter account, because I posted some Ezria wedding teasers this week. Check them out first, and this chapter will come alive more! (I hope) My twitter name is EnchantingFitz

Italics = _Flashback_

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><p>Aria looked at herself in the white floor standing mirror. She had just put on her wedding dress and couldn't stop staring at herself. She was wearing a full crystal bodice tulle wedding dress. When she had seen it in the bridal store, she had known it was the perfect dress for her. Her hair was down, in loose curls and she was wearing a tiara. Aria twirled in front of the mirror and she couldn't help but giggle. She couldn't believe that today was finally here, she was completely overjoyed. The last few weeks had gone by so fast, but so much had happened…<p>

_Aria and Ezra were laying on the cushioned porch swing on the back porch of their new house. Aria was leaning back against Ezra's chest, playing with her newly acquired engagement ring on her finger. Ezra was stroking her arm with his fingers and said, interrupting their beautiful moment, "You do know we eventually have to go back to the hospital, right?" Aria nodded sadly and replied, "Just not today…I just want to be here with you right now. I'll go back tomorrow." Ezra kissed the top of her head and said, "No matter what happens, I'll support whichever decision you make. I'll never leave your side." Aria turned her head to face him, kissed him on the lips and replied, "I know. It's one of the many reasons why I love you." _

Aria walked over to the window and looked outside. The sun was shining brightly in the sky, everything looked so peaceful and calm. Then again, that was Rosewood for you. Since most of the people they knew lived in Rosewood, they had decided to have the wedding there, even though they lived in their new house in Manhattan now. It was the perfect day for a wedding, _their _wedding. Aria grinned, she couldn't wait to be Ezra's wife and spend the rest of her life with him. The rest of her life… Aria's grin slipped away, but then she shook her head and went to sit in front of the vanity.

_Ezra squeezed Aria's hands as they were sitting in the waiting room. He could sense how nervous she was and all he wanted to do was make this all go away. He wished it had been him and not her, she didn't deserve any of this. After a while, the doctor called them into his office to tell her whether the blood thinner had worked or not. Ezra hadn't been allowed to be in the same room when they did the CT scan earlier today, so Aria was really glad he was here now, she really needed him. _

_After Aria and Ezra had taken a seat, the doctor did the same and looked at Aria. Aria could tell by the look on his face the news wasn't going to be good. The doctor said, "I'm sorry… the blood thinner didn't work. I know you have your doubts about getting the blood clot removed surgically, but honestly it's your best shot." Ezra asked, "Isn't there anything else you could try?" The doctor shrugged and replied, "We could try another course of the fast-acting blood thinner, but I doubt it will work this time. We could try blood thinner pills, which you'd have to take daily for a long time… but they'd be a much lower dose and if the fast-acting doesn't work, then I really doubt this will. Like I said, the surgery is your best option. You don't have to decide right now, think about it, talk it through… But just don't wait too long, the sooner you get rid of it, the sooner this will all be over." _

_Aria, who hadn't said anything the entire time, suddenly said, "But it won't be over. I'll just keep getting other blood clots and need more surgery." The doctor replied, "That's not true. After the surgery we could put you on the low dose blood thinners to help prevent them. We'll also run tests to see what's causing them, so we can try and stop them." Aria shook her head sadly and said, "No… I'm sorry, I can't do it…" Ezra squeezed her hand to let her know it was alright, that he'd be there for her, even though her decision was killing him on the inside. Yesterday it had been just a possibility, today it was a reality. _

Suddenly Aria was pulled out of her thoughts by someone knocking on the door. Ella walked into the room and Aria got up from the vanity chair. Ella was in awe when she saw her daughter in her wedding dress. Ella smiled and said, "Oh Aria… you look absolutely beautiful. I don't think I've ever been happier. I'm so grateful for being given another chance, we both are. You and Ezra are going to have a long and happy life together, I'm so glad you're okay." Aria smiled, hugged her mom and said, "I know." Aria's expression on her face went from happy to guilty. This time it was the other way around, this time she was the one who had lied.

_Ezra looked at Aria questioningly and asked, "Are you sure you want to do this?" Aria nodded and replied, "I need to do this. I don't want them to know, they won't understand. I know it's wrong and that there have been enough lies in this family already, but… the last thing I need right now is for them to give me a hard time about this. They can't change my mind, so it's better for all of us that they don't know." Ezra nodded and opened the door of the coffee shop for Aria. She walked in and spotted her parents at a table. She took a deep breath, walked over to them and took a seat. _

_Ella and Byron looked at Aria expectantly, so Aria said, "It worked, the blood clot is completely gone." Ella and Byron both sighed in relief. Ella asked, "And what about any future blood clots?" Aria replied, "I have to take blood thinner pills for the rest of my life to prevent them, but that's just a small price to pay to be healthy, I guess." Ella smiled and said, "Oh, I'm so happy it all worked out. I was so worried!" Aria gave her mom a fake smile and replied, "Yeah, me too."_

_Ella sighed and said, "Listen… now that you're both here, we've got something to say. We know that what we did was absolutely wrong, and I'm not just talking about recent events. Ever since you two got together, we haven't been the most supportive people out there and we feel really badly about it. Now, we're not asking for your forgiveness, because how can you ever forgive us for what we did… However we were hoping for a fresh start." After a moment of silence, Aria replied, "You're right… I don't think I can ever forgive you for all the things that you did or tried to do… but I do realize that you only did those things in a misguided attempt to protect me and keep me in your lives. I actually feel partially to blame because I wasn't there for you the way I should have been after Mike died. I don't think we could ever go back to the way things were before all of this, but… maybe we can go forward, maybe we can be better…"_

_Ella and Byron were both overjoyed that Aria had decided to give them another chance. After some small talk, Ella looked at Ezra and Aria and asked, "So, what are your plans now?" Aria and Ezra looked at each other with a secretive smile on their face and Aria replied, "Well…actually… we're getting married. We got engaged last night." Ella and Byron blinked in shock a couple of times, but then they smiled and congratulated them. _

Ella could feel Aria tense up, so she leaned back and asked, "What's wrong?" Aria shook her head and replied, "Nothing. Just nervous, that's all." Ella reassured Aria, "Oh honey, you've got nothing to be nervous about. Today is going to be the most beautiful day of your life, you'll see. Well, until the day you have your first child, of course." Children…was that even possible for them? A blood clot and giving birth didn't seem to go hand in hand. Not to mention, if something happened to her… a child with no mother and Ezra would have to raise their child on his own. Ella saw the look on Aria's face and added jokingly, "But hold off on that for a few more years, will you? I'm way too young to be a grandmother." Aria laughed, but her heart wasn't really in it. Ella asked, "Are you ready to go? Don't want to keep the groom waiting." Aria smiled, nodded and then her and Ella left to go to the wedding location.

They had chosen on a big outdoor wedding in Rosewood park. The wedding reception afterwards would be held there too in a big wedding reception tent. When Aria arrived, she noticed her dad standing there waiting for her. She couldn't help but think back to their conversation before her parents went back to Rosewood.

_Byron touched Aria's arm to get her attention and asked, "Can we talk in private?" Aria nodded and replied, "Sure." Then they walked off to the side, away from Ezra and Ella. Byron said, "Look, I just want to apologize again for how I behaved these past few years. These last few days have been a real eye-opener and I realize that I was wrong. Ezra's a good man and I have no doubt that you'll be in good hands with him. I just wish I could have seen it sooner, then we could have avoided all of this. But you know me, I can be pretty stubborn. Once I have my mind made up, there's not much of a chance I'll change it." Aria smiled and replied, "So that's where I get it from." Byron said, "I truly am sorry and I'll spend the rest of my life regretting what I did. I'll do whatever it takes to fix my mistakes." Aria nodded and replied, "I know… which is why I'd like to ask you to give me away at my wedding?" Byron looked both surprised and grateful as Aria asked her question. Then Byron smiled and replied, "There's nothing in the world I would love to do more."_

Aria got out of the car and Byron helped her out of it. He asked, "Are you ready?" Aria nodded with a big smile on her face and Byron offered his arm to her. She took it and they walked over to the white wedding aisle runner that was decorated with pink rose petals. When they reached it, Pachelbel Canon in D Major started to play and Byron walked Aria down the aisle.

Ezra was standing in the front, waiting nervously for the ceremony to start. When he heard the music start to play, he looked up and saw his future wife. Aria made his heart skip a beat, she looked breathtakingly beautiful. When Byron and Aria reached Ezra, Byron handed his daughter over to Ezra and said, "There's no man I trust more than you to take care of my little girl."

The minister started the ceremony and when it was time to exchange the vows, Ezra said, "I, Ezra Fitz, take you, Aria Montgomery, to be my wife, secure in the knowledge that you will be my constant friend, my faithful partner in life and my one true love. When I first met you, I thought, who is this girl? From the very moment I saw you, I knew you were the one for me, the one that I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Now I'll have that chance and I'll never take even one second with you for granted. I will never leave your side and our love will go on for eternity, even when we're both long gone." Then it was Aria's turn and she said, "I, Aria Montgomery, take you, Ezra Fitz, to be my husband, secure in the knowledge that you will be my constant friend, my faithful partner in life and my one true love. We've been through so much together, and through it all our love never wavered, it just got stronger. So no matter what life throws our way, I know we will survive it and come out stronger on the other end. Because our love is impenetrable, our love will last forever."

After exchanging their vows, it was time for the exchange of rings. Ezra took the ring and placed it on Aria's finger as he spoke the words, "This ring is my sacred gift to you, a symbol of my love, a sign that from this day forward and always, my love with surround you. With this ring I thee wed." Then Aria repeated those same words as she placed Ezra's wedding ring on his finger. Then the minister said, "By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss your bride." Aria and Ezra grinned and then leaned in for a kiss.

After the wedding ceremony, there was the wedding party inside the wedding reception tent. Aria was delighted to meet up again with Spencer, Hanna and Emily, who had come down for her wedding. It had been years since she'd last seen them, because they were all so busy with their own lives. After dinner there was the cutting of the cake and their first dance together as husband and wife. They had chosen "Just a Kiss" by Lady Antebellum, because it held special meaning to them.

When the wedding reception was coming to an end, Aria told Ezra suggestively, "I'd really like to get out of here, dear husband." Ezra grinned and replied, "I'd like nothing more, my lovely wife, but you still need to toss the bouquet." Aria had totally forgotten about that and said, "Right! I'll go do that and then we can leave. But first, I need a bathroom break." Ezra replied flirtatiously, "Maybe I should join you? We could have a repeat of the first time we met." Aria giggled and said, "Keep it in your pants, Mr. Fitz. You'll have plenty of opportunity later tonight." Ezra winked and replied, "I look forward to it, Mrs. Fitz." Aria grinned at Ezra, Mrs. Fitz… She kissed Ezra very passionately and then said, "See you in a few minutes." Then as she walked away, she turned her head and winked at him to let him know that he should follow her to the bathroom, but in a few minutes to not make it too obvious.

Aria walked into the bathroom and then walked over to the sink. She looked into the mirror and noticed the huge grin on her face that wouldn't go away. She was Mrs. Fitz now!

A few minutes later, Ezra casually made his way over to the bathroom, trying his best to look inconspicuous. He looked around him a few times to make sure no one was watching him as he got into the ladies room. As he walked in, his heart stopped. Aria was there, laying on the floor, unconscious. He rushed over to her side, yelling her name. He got down on his knees next to her and stroked her cheek, pleading her to wake up. Then he got up and ran out of the bathroom, yelling for someone to call 911. He went back inside, Ella and Byron rushing towards the bathroom and walking in too.

Ezra sat down on his knees next to Aria again, taking one of her hands in both of his, kissing it. When Ella saw her daughter like that on the floor, she broke down completely. Byron, who was bewildered himself, took Ella into his arms to comfort her. Minutes later the paramedics walked in and made Ezra move aside, so they could do their job. One of the paramedics checked Aria's neck for a pulse and said, "No pulse. Charge the paddles to 200 joules… Clear." The paramedic checked her pulse again and said, "Still nothing. Push 1 milligram of epinephrine and charge to 300… Clear."

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><p>Well, you all brought this on yourselves for not getting me to 200 reviews before this chapter, lol.<br>No, I'm just kidding, I've had it planned all along, I'm just mean.  
>But uhm…more reviews means more survival chance…just kidding…or am I? Are you really willing to take that chance? lol<p> 


	19. (Un)Happy Endings

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Pretty Little Liars

**Author's note:** Threatening to kill off Aria and still no 200 reviews? Wow, you really want her to die, huh? Lol Well, read on to see whether I did or not…

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><p>After the paramedics shocked Aria a few more times with the defibrillator, Aria finally had a pulse again and the paramedics moved her into the ambulance. Ezra followed them and got into the ambulance to go with them to the hospital. Byron and Ella got into their car as fast as they could and made their way over to the hospital.<p>

When Byron and Ella arrived at the hospital, they saw Ezra nervously pacing around in the waiting room. They walked up to him and Ella asked, "What's going on?" Ezra looked lost and replied, "I-I don't know. They rushed her off somewhere and they can't tell me what's happened yet. They said the doctor was going to come out and talk to me when they knew more." Ella started sobbing again and said, "How could this happen? She was finally healthy again and now this!?" Byron took his wife in his arms to comfort her. Ezra sunk down onto one of the chairs and put his head in his hands, feeling defeated.

After a while, the doctor came out and walked over to them. Ezra jumped out of his seat and asked impatiently, "Is she okay?" The doctor nodded and said, "For now, she's stable." Ezra, Byron and Ella sighed in relief and Ezra asked, "What happens now? Can we go see her?" The doctor looked a bit uncomfortable and then said, "She's stable, but she's not waking up. We fear she might be in a coma. There are some things we need to discuss, but I think it's best that we go into my office for that." Ezra went pale, a coma!? Ezra nodded and absentmindedly followed the doctor into his office.

When all three of them had taken a seat, the doctor said, "We need to discuss what to do next. Seeing as your wife appears to be in a coma, she's not able to make any medical decisions for herself. Mr. Fitz, as her husband, you are legally in charge of all medical decisions that need to be made. I'm going to explain what has happened first and then we can discuss what to do, okay?" Ezra nodded and the doctor continued, "The blood clot in your wife's brain moved, causing her to have a stroke that resulted in cardiac arrest." Ella looked confused and interrupted the doctor by asking, "What do you mean, the blood clot in her brain? I thought it was gone? I mean, the blood thinner had worked, right?" Ezra looked down at the ground with a guilty look on his face. Ella turned to Ezra and asked demandingly, "right!?"

Ezra sighed, looked up at Ella and Byron and said, "I'm…I'm so sorry. She made me promise not to tell you." Ella didn't know what to say, she felt heartbroken. Byron got upset and said, "So the both of you just lied to us!? Was this some kind of payback!?" Ezra replied, "No! It wasn't anything like that! She just didn't want to worry you." Ella yelled, "Well, that worked out perfectly, now didn't it!?" Ezra replied, "I know it was a stupid thing to do, but it's what she wanted. You can yell at us for it later all you want, but right now it doesn't matter. All that matters right now is making sure she's okay."

After an awkward silence, the doctor continued, "When we did the CT scan, we saw that the blood clot had moved, but we also noticed something else. We couldn't get a clear view, so we did an MRI to get a better look. We couldn't see it before, because the blood clot was masking it, but your wife has a micro tumor in her brain." Ezra's mouth dropped open in shock and then uttered the word, "W-What?" The doctor said, "I know a brain tumor sounds pretty bad, but it's really small at the moment, so the sooner we remove it, the better. I also believe that it's the tumor that has been causing the blood clots, so if I'm right and I remove it, then she won't get any new blood clots." Ezra asked, "You're sure about this?" The doctor replied, "There's never a hundred percent guarantee… but I'm pretty sure." Ezra thought about something for a few seconds and then asked, "So If I tell you to do the surgery, she'll be back to normal afterwards?" The doctor shrugged and replied, "I can't say. I have no idea what kind of effect the stroke had on her brain, that'll only point itself out once she wakes up. Looking at the situation now, I don't even know _if_ she will wake up from her coma with or without the surgery."

Ezra felt his heart constrict as he thought of Aria never waking up again. He didn't know what to do. The thought of losing Aria was unbearable, so doing nothing wasn't an option, right? But on the other hand, he wanted to respect her wishes. If he agreed to let them do the surgery, then Aria would be furious with him for not listening to her. Then again, Ezra would rather have Aria alive and furious at him than not alive at all… It's decided then, surgery it is.

Before Ezra could speak, the doctor said, "Before you make your decision, there is one more thing I need to tell you. Maybe your wife already told you, but in case she didn't, I'm informing you of it now. A few days ago your wife came to the hospital and she signed a DNR, a Do-Not-Resuscitate order." Ezra turned pale, he had no idea she had done this. Didn't she trust him at all? Ella wanted to ask Ezra if he had known about this, but the destroyed look on his face told her he hadn't known at all. Ezra didn't understand and asked, "But what about the paramedics earlier? They resuscitated her after she went into cardiac arrest!?" The doctor explained, "Unless she's wearing a special DNR bracelet, the paramedics at the scene couldn't have known, so they're obligated to resuscitate her. But now she's at the hospital and we know there's a DNR, so if she goes into cardiac arrest again during the surgery, there's nothing I can do about it."

Ezra felt like he was being punched in the stomach, over and over. Ezra shook his head fervently, said, "No…I can't do this. I can't make this decision. I just can't", and then got up and left the room. Byron got up, went after him and stopped him when they were a few feet away from the doctor's office. Byron said, "Look, I know this is hard, but you need to go back in there and do the right thing." Ezra looked lost as he said, "But I don't even know what the right thing to do is. I wish she would just wake up already." Byron asked, "Why? To be honest, it's better she doesn't, because she would say no to the surgery. You know she needs it." Ezra explained, "If Aria wakes up, she can revoke the DNR. Her life is in my hands right now… it's too big a responsibility. I can't make this decision, not to mention, she clearly didn't want me to make it for her. She signed that DNR for a reason, because she didn't trust me and because she knew I wouldn't risk it." Byron reasoned with Ezra, "Is there a chance she might die during the surgery? Yes, there is. But if she doesn't have the surgery, she's dead anyways…" Byron's words were harsh, but they were true.

The doctor and Ella were waiting in his office, sitting there in an awkward silence. Then suddenly Ezra walked back in, followed by Byron. Ezra looked at the doctor and said, "Alright…Do the surgery."

The doctor had just finished removing the micro tumor, when the assistant handed him the aspirator to suck out the blood clot. As the doctor got closer to the blood clot, Aria's blood pressure starting dropping more and more. The assistant said, "Doctor, her BP is dropping significantly, we need to do something before she goes into cardiac arrest." The doctor sighed and replied, "I'm almost there. As soon as I suck out the blood clot, her BP will go back up." When the doctor reached the blood clot, Aria's blood pressure started plummeting. The assistant urged the doctor, "Doctor, we need to do something." Then the doctor said, "There, it's gone", and Aria's blood pressure starting rising again. When the doctor got out the aspirator, he sighed in relief.

When Aria woke up in her room, it was the middle of the night. Except from the soft light coming in from the hallway, the room was pitch dark. Aria looked around and as her eyes focused, she noticed that Ezra was in the chair next to the bed, sleeping. Ezra slowly opened his eyes as he heard a noise. It was Aria trying to get out of bed. Ezra was instantly awake and said, "Woah, hold it right there. Take it easy, where do you think you're going?" Aria's voice was hoarse as she muttered, "I still need to pee." Ezra chuckled and replied, "Wait here. Don't move, I'll go get a nurse." When Ezra got back with a nurse, she helped Aria. After getting Aria back into bed, the nurse said, "The doctor will come by in a while to check up on you. In the meanwhile, just try and rest." Then the nurse left and Ezra asked, "How are you feeling?" Aria had a hard time trying to keep her eyes open as she replied, "Tired… But other than that, I feel fine. What happened? Last thing I remember is that I was in the bathroom waiting for you?"

Ezra explained, "When I found you, you were lying on the floor, unconscious. The blood clot in your brain had moved and caused you to go into cardiac arrest." Aria's eyes widened in shock, but then she frowned at herself, looking somewhat confused. Ezra noticed this and asked in a bitter tone, "What? Wondering why you're not dead right now?" Aria was surprised at Ezra's reaction…so he knew. She never thought she would get to this moment, to be completely honest. She had always thought that by the time Ezra found out about the DNR, she would have been dead already. Ezra continued, "The paramedics didn't know about the DNR, so they were obligated to help you. The reason why I do know about the DNR, is because you were brought into the hospital. The doctor told me… right before I had him perform brain surgery on you."

Aria went pale as her mouth dropped open in shock. After a few seconds she asked, not quite believing what she had just heard, "You what!?" Ezra didn't reply, instead he just looked her straight in the eyes and shrugged. Aria shook her head in disbelief and yelled, "You had no right! I could have died!" Ezra frowned and yelled back , "You would have died anyways!" Aria's voice cracked as she replied, "But on my terms! You should have respected my wishes…I thought you loved me?" Ezra explained, "I did this _because_ I love you. You weren't thinking straight." Aria bit back, "Yes I was!" Ezra shook his head and said, "No, you weren't and you know it. You were just too scared to make the right decision. And now you don't have to, because I made it for you. And now that it's over, we can start living our life as husband and wife together."

Aria sighed and looked down at her hands as she said, "But it's not over… It'll just keep happening. I told you I didn't want this. Do you have any idea what kind of a future you've given me by being so… selfish?" Ezra raised his eyebrows and replied sullenly, "Oh, you mean like the way you signed a DNR and didn't bother to ask me or tell me about it? Let's just say we're even now." Aria shook her head disappointedly and said, "And apparently I wasn't wrong when I made that decision." Ezra sighed in exasperation and started saying, "Yes, you were, because the doctor-", but was interrupted by Aria, who said, "Get out." Ezra blinked in disbelief and asked, "What?" Aria looked mad as she replied, "I said, get out." Ezra was taken aback by Aria's reaction and tried to reason with her, "Aria…", but was once again interrupted by Aria yelling angrily, "LEAVE!"

Ezra was heartbroken by Aria's reaction and as he made his way out of the room, he softly said, "So much for our love being impenetrable." As Aria heard those words, she regretted her outburst immediately and said, "Wait!" Ezra turned around and looked at Aria, waiting for her to continue. Aria said, "This doesn't change anything… I still love you. I'm just upset…I'm hurt and disappointed." Ezra looked lost as he replied, "How do you think I felt when the doctor told me about the DNR?" Aria looked remorseful as she said, "I know… and I'm so sorry for that. It's just that… I got scared." Ezra didn't understand, why would she sign a DNR if she was scared? He looked at Aria questioningly, so she explained, "A couple of nights ago, I woke up because you were talking in your sleep. You said you would do anything so you wouldn't lose me. I know I can't hold that against you, because you were sleeping… but it got me to thinking. If it would have been you instead of me… So you see, it's not because I didn't trust you, It's because I know you… It's because I would have done the same and I couldn't allow that to happen."

Ezra was even more confused now and asked, "If you would have done the same, then why are you so mad at me?" Aria sighed and admitted, "I'm not just mad at you…I'm mad at everyone, at everything. I'm mad at life. I love you so much, I don't ever want to be without you… and the thought that this is all out of my control, the thought that any moment with you could be my last, the thought that we don't even have the chance to start our own family, the thought that this would be our life… It's unbearable and it drives me crazy. I needed to feel somewhat in control, like at least one aspect of all this was my choice, so I signed a DNR." Ezra took Aria's hand in his and said, "Oh Aria, it breaks my heart that you feel like this, but… signing that DNR doesn't mean you're in control. It's just means you're giving up. You want to be in control? Then fight back." Aria shook her head sadly and said, "I don't think I can… I'm just not strong enough."

Ezra looked at Aria like he couldn't believe what he was hearing and said, "Are you kidding me!? Aria, you are the strongest person I know. But you know what? Whenever you don't feel like you're strong enough, I'll be strong for you. I told you, you are not in this alone. I'll never leave your side, no matter what happens. There's nothing I wouldn't do for you." Aria smiled, squeezed Ezra's hand and replied, "There's nothing I wouldn't do for you either." Ezra took this moment as a chance and said, "Then revoke the DNR." Aria sighed softly, but then she nodded and said, "Okay." Ezra looked relieved, said, "You have no idea how much that means to me", and then he leaned in and softly kissed Aria on the lips.

When Ezra moved back, Aria grabbed his shirt and pulled him back to her so she could kiss him again. After their heated kiss, Aria leaned back to look Ezra in the eyes and she whispered, "I can't wait to get out of here. I really want to finish what we started." Ezra grinned and replied, "You and me both, but I think that will have to wait. You need to take it easy for now." Aria pouted, which made Ezra chuckle.

All of a sudden the doctor walked in and Aria felt slightly embarrassed, because he had caught them in an intimate moment. The doctor jokingly said, "I take it you're feeling better?" Aria blushed as she uncomfortable cleared her throat and replied, "Yes." The doctor smiled and said, "Good. I'm guessing you would like to know how the surgery went?" Aria nodded and replied, "Yes, but first I'd like to revoke my DNR." The doctor said, "I had a feeling you would, so I took the liberty of bringing it with me. All you have to do is throw it away or rip it to pieces and it's gone", and then he handed the DNR to Aria. Without taking a second look at it, Aria ripped it a couple of times and then handed the pieces to Ezra so he could discard of them.

The doctor started explaining, "As your husband may have told you already, the reason why you're here is because the blood clot in your brain moved and you had a stroke, which caused you to go into cardiac arrest. When you arrived at the hospital we did some extra scans to see where the blood clot went. It was then that we noticed you had a micro tumor that we couldn't see before because the blood clot had been masking it." Aria's mouth dropped open in shock and she uttered the words, "I have a brain tumor!?" The doctor corrected Aria immediately as he said, "Had. We successfully removed both the brain tumor and the blood clot." Aria nodded absentmindedly and then she asked, "So what happens now?" The doctor replied, "You'll have to come in for regular check-ups so we can keep an eye out for any new blood clots, but if I'm right that won't be the case. I'm pretty sure the micro tumor was causing you to have these blood clots, so now that we've removed the tumor…"

Aria nodded and said, "No more blood clots…" The doctor nodded back at her with a smile and replied, "Exactly." Aria looked at Ezra, took his hand in hers and then they smiled at each other. Aria squeezed Ezra's hand as she turned to the doctor and said, "Well, let's just hope you're right then."

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><p>Next chapter is the epilogue, which I already uploaded too. Enjoy!<p> 


	20. Epilogue

_It was a sunny day and Ezra was in his backyard, pushing his little girl on the swing set. She was giggling, telling him to make her go higher. Then she told him to stop and she just swinged back and forth until she eventually came to a rest. The little girl got up, grabbed the ropes on each side and stepped onto the seat, facing her father. The girl giggled and said, "I'm almost as tall as you now!" Ezra smiled and replied, "I can see that…just don't grow up too fast, okay?" The girl let go off the ropes, threw herself around Ezra's neck and he caught her. The girl leaned back and said, "I wish mommy was here to play with us." Ezra nodded and replied, "Me too, but you know that's not possible." The girl nodded sadly and said, "I know." Then all of a sudden the girl seemed to have an idea and she suggested, "Maybe we can try and wake her up?" Ezra frowned, but before he could say anything, his daughter started repeating the same words over and over, "Can we daddy, please, please, can we?" _

_All of a sudden they heard a voice coming from the back door, jokingly saying, "Relentless like her father." The girl whipped her head around with an excited look on her face and yelled, "Mommy!", before getting out of Ezra's grip and running towards her mom at full speed. Ezra saw his daughter in action and yelled, "Olivia, take it easy and slow down!" Olivia slowed down and when she reached her mom, she hugged her. Ezra walked towards them and said, "And you, Aria, shouldn't you be in bed?" Aria pouted and said, "I'm sick and tired of bed rest. Honestly, what's the worst thing that can happen now? I'm seriously ready for this guy to come out", as she pointed towards her pregnant belly. Ezra grinned and replied jokingly, "Stubborn, just like his mother." Aria raised an eyebrow in fake annoyance and said sardonically, "That is so funny… I can't believe you're not a comedian, Mr. Fitz." Ezra chuckled and replied, "And I can't believe how I ever got this lucky, Mrs. Fitz." Aria grinned and said, "Funny AND charming, I must have done something right." They both laughed and then Ezra leaned in to kiss Aria. _

_All of a sudden Aria stopped their kiss by gasping and Ezra asked worriedly, "What's wrong?" Aria blinked a couple of times, then looked Ezra in the eyes, smiled and said, "My water just broke…" _

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><p>So, that was it for Stuck at Fifteen. I really loved writing this story and I felt really sad that I had to end it, but then again, I can't keep going forever, lol.<p>

I really hope you liked the last chapter and the epilogue. Actually, I hope you liked the entire story.

Please let me know what you think. Did you like the ending? Did you hope for/expect a different one?


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